


Love Does Not Fail

by jadejedi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, F/M, Gen, Grey Jedi, Jedi Leia Organa, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, canon is a buffet from which i pick and choose, the jedi council sucks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23019886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadejedi/pseuds/jadejedi
Summary: When Anakin saves the galaxy from Palpatine, Padmé and his children survive, but their family is split apart nonetheless. Leia is taken to be raised in the Temple, not knowing that the Jedi who "found" her is actually her father. Luke grows up with Padmé, knowing only his mother's side of the family. But some things are inevitable.
Relationships: Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano, Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker, Mara Jade & Leia Organa, Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala & Luke Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 71
Kudos: 195





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Another RotS fix-it fic / what if Anakin and Padmé each raise a twin. Basically, things happen a little differently post TCW s6e7 Crisis at the Heart. This chapter is basically a prologue, so we are going to move with LIGHTNING SPEED through RotS. The focus of this story is what comes after RotS, rather than a scene-by-scene rewrite of the movie. Also, I am a little hesitant to put this out before s7 of The Clone Wars airs, but eh whatever. If it fits in, great, if not, oh well. Unbeta'd.

Padmé was silent on the jump back to Coruscant. 

Anakin wasn’t sure if it was grief for the loss of Clovis, or if it was lingering anger over his actions throughout this whole ordeal. He had been right about Clovis being a traitorous piece of Separatist scum, but he had a feeling that that wasn’t much comfort to Padmé right now. 

For the first couple of hours of the trip back, he had been content to pretend to meditate while he let her sit silently in his bunk on The Resolute, wordlessly scrolling through her datapad, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on like this. 

“Padmé,” he began hesitantly, moving to crouch next to the bunk. “I am sorry about what happened to Clovis. I am sorry for my part in all of this.” 

She looked up from her data pad, a tired look in her eyes. “Anakin, what has happened to us?” She set the data pad down and looked at her hands. “Our relationship isn’t what it once was.”

Anakin felt his heart ache. “Do you still want us to… take a break?” he asked, recalling her words on Coruscant. 

She shook her head helplessly. “Anakin, I love you. I don’t want to be apart from you. But I also want things that can’t be. I want our relationship to be better than it is now.”

Anakin reached out to grasp her hands. “It can be better. I can be better!” He couldn’t lose her. This whole mess had started because he hadn’t wanted to lose her, and now he might anyways.

Padmé smiled sadly at him. “It might not be up to us. This relationship will always be a secret. How can either of us be expected to operate normally, or in any way that could be considered healthy, in such conditions?”

Anakin let out a frustrated huff. “So what? You’re just going to throw this away? Pretend it never happened?”

“No! That’s not what I want.” She sighed. “Anakin, I worry about how healthy his relationship is for you. You feel things so strongly, including your feelings for me. And I love that about you. But you have no outlet for those feelings, except for me. And when you and I are at odds, you have no one to turn to. You end up just bottling up those emotions until they explode out of you like they did at home.”

Anakin looked down at their joined hands. “I could tell Obi-Wan,” he offered. 

“What?” Padmé said in surprise. 

“I…think he may have an idea that something is going on between us,” he admitted, looking up at her. “And I think he would understand, at least a little.” He paused and looked back down. “I haven’t told him before because,” he sighed. “Because I don’t want him to see me as a failure. As a bad Jedi.”

Padmé withdrew one of her hands from his so she could cup his cheek. “Oh, Anakin. Obi-Wan loves you. I know the Jedi aren’t supposed to feel such things, and I know you think that Obi-Wan is above all that, but he isn’t. It is the nature of sentient beings to love. There is no stopping it.”

“You think so?”

Padmé nodded. “I know the Jedi say that attachment is dangerous, but I think that they don’t realize how much strength that love, healthy love, can give a person. I think attachment only becomes dangerous when it becomes an obsession.” She gently tilted his head so he was looking her in the eye. “Anakin, I don’t want our love to become an obsession.”

Anakin leaned into the hand that was touching his cheek. “I don’t want that either. I think you’re right. I need to be able to talk to someone about all of this.” 

She smiled encouragingly at him. “I’m glad, Ani.”

Hearing her use his nickname soothed some of the worry he felt that had been eating away at his gut. They would be okay, he could feel it. 

There was always the possibility that Obi-Wan would rat on him to the Council, but he didn’t think so. And even if he did, his future with Padmé was worth more to him than his future with the Jedi. 

\--

“Anakin,” scolded Obi-Wan, “I can feel your anxiety from here,” he said, meditating in one of the Temple’s small meditation rooms.

Anakin was seated next to him, ostensibly meditating himself. In reality, though, he was too keyed up to meditate. He and Padmé had gotten back from Scipio almost a week ago, and he still hadn’t confessed. His anxiety over the subject was a nexu chewing at his insides. 

When Anakin didn’t reply, Obi-Wan sighed and looked over at him. “What’s going on, Anakin? You know you can talk to me.”

Did he know that? 

Yes, he supposed he did.

“Master,” Anakin began, “I have something to confess to you.”

Obi-Wan looked at him in concern but said nothing, and let him speak.

Anakin paused, then sighed. “I am telling you this because I have no one else to talk to, and it is causing me a great deal of stress.” He paused again. “Please don’t tell the Council.” 

He paused again, before blurting, “I’m married to Padmé!”

Obi-Wan’s eyes widened in surprise, only for a moment, before his expression settled onto one of understanding.

Anakin shot him a hesitant smile. “You knew, didn’t you?

Obi-Wan leaned back where he sat, palms behind him on the ground for support. “I knew you were in a relationship with the Senator, of course. At first, I think I just thought that you wanted to be. But I eventually realized, yes.” He grinned wryly. “I wouldn’t have guessed that you were actually married, though.” 

“You aren’t going to tell the Council?” Anakin asked, just to be sure.

“I am on the Council, Anakin. I don’t see why the whole Council needs to know,” he said with a sly grin. His expression turned serious. “And it’s not like I can’t empathize. I know that you know about some of my history with Satine, but I never really told you all of it.”

“All of it?”

Obi-Wan’s eyes looked sad in a way that had become frighteningly common for him these days. “I loved her. By the end of my time guarding her we were… involved. If she had asked me to leave the Order, I would have,” he admitted.

Anakin felt his own eyes widen. “You? Leave the Order?”

He nodded. “Like I said, we were in love. She didn’t want me to leave for her, though.”

“I’m sorry,” Anakin said. “I didn’t realize how much she meant to you.”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “We aren’t talking about me right now. Why are you telling me this now? Is something wrong?”

Ankin sighed and told him about what had happened between him and Padmé and Clovis. 

When he got through the whole story, Obi-Wan grimaced. “You really do have a way of finding trouble in every situation, don’t you?”

“Is that all you have to say?!” Anakin exclaimed, a bit of frustration slipping through. 

Obi-Wan chuckled. “No, of course not. I’m sorry. You have managed to get into a difficult situation, though.”

Anakin looked down at his hands. “I didn’t want to lose her,” he admitted. “I am always so scared of losing her. She is everything to me.”

“Have you considered that your efforts thus far to “keep” her are what is pushing her away?”

And there it was. His worst fear. That his own desire to save Padmé, to save their relationship would be what tore them apart. 

“What do I do?” he asked quietly. 

Obi-Wan stroked his beard. “I think your apology was a good first step. And talking to me was the right thing to do. I want to help you, Anakin. You may not be a conventional Jedi, but you are a great one; your relationship with Padmé hasn’t hindered you so far.”

Anakin felt himself smile a bit at his former master’s praise. 

Obi-Wan continued, “To me, the Jedi’s rules on attachment aren’t so much about any supposed danger that love and attachment carry, but about our responsibility to the Republic and the galaxy as a whole. The worry is that if you are attached to one person or one family, you won’t be able to serve the entire galaxy. And maybe that is true. But I have begun to think that it is possible that we need that attachment anyways. Maybe it makes us lesser Jedi, but it makes us better people.”

\--

Things changed slowly for Anakin after that conversation with Obi-Wan, but they did change. 

He felt lighter, not having to hide that secret from his best friend. Knowing that Obi-Wan did not think any less of him. 

He and Padmé invited Obi-Wan over for dinner one night. It was a little awkward, at first, but eventually they all relaxed and Obi-Wan regaled Padmé with stories from Anakin’s apprenticeship. 

Anakin knew he and Padmé’s relationship would never be fully “normal”, but he was glad to be able to provide her with a little bit of that. 

Their relationship righted itself, as much as it could in the span of a couple of weeks. He still worried, about losing her, about the war. But he knew that she loved him, and wanted to be with him. And it helped, knowing that Obi-Wan was behind them. 

It wasn’t long before Obi-Wan and Anakin were deployed again to the Outer Rim. Anakin didn’t have to ask Rex to cover for him to Obi-Wan anymore. When Anakin started to feel the separation from Padmé, he was able to talk to Obi-Wan. 

It was about the longest they’d ever been separated, gone for three months without seeing each other. It wasn’t long before Anakin was driving Obi-Wan fully crazy with his pining for his wife. 

While they were deployed, Anakin felt like he was on the best terms with his former master than he’d been for a long time, maybe ever. Once that one secret had been told, it was like an avalanche had been released. He told Obi-Wan about his mother’s death on Tatooine, about what he’d done to the Tuskens, about everything.

Obi-Wan had been more than concerned, of course. That involved an even longer discussion than when Anakin had told him about his marriage. There had been a lot of meditation involved. And talking. And more meditating. Eventually, Obi-Wan put a hand on his shoulder, and looking him in the eyes said, “Those mistakes, Anakin, were in the past. I fully believe that you have grown past them, and that you understand not just the horror and gravity of your actions, but are no longer the kind of person who would do something like that again.”

And when he said that, Anakin believed him. Not just that Obi-Wan could forgive him and not see him as any less, but over the course of the Sieges, Anakin also came to believe what Obi-Wan said about him. He wasn’t that person anymore. That anger, that resentment and fear that he had so long held in his heart began to melt away as he continued to confide in Padmé and in Obi-Wan. 

And when they got back to Coruscant, and Padmé told him that she was pregnant, he told Obi-Wan the next day. When he had nightmares about her death, all three of them sat down and talked about how serious it might be, and what they could do. 

Padmé was looked over by a Jedi healer (a friend of Obi-Wan’s who was more interested in healing than in spreading secrets), and, to her chagrin, followed around by a very chipper medical droid called AZ-7. Everyone they talked to said she was healthy. But, his nightmares persisted.

\--

When the moment came, Anakin was at peace with himself. Well, maybe not entirely. He still didn’t think that the Council trusted him, but Obi-Wan did. And he still had nightmares. But he didn’t want to let them get to him. 

When Palpatine told him that he could show him how to save Padmé from certain death, things clicked into place for Anakin.

“It’s you,” Anakin said, circling the Chancellor, lightsaber drawn. “You are the one giving me those nightmares.” He paused, and looked at Palpatine in horror. “You’ve been manipulating me this whole time!” He growled. “Since I was a boy!”

“No! It’s the Jedi, the Council that’s been manipulating you, Anakin! Your master, he doesn’t trust you. The Council doesn’t trust you! They fear your powers!”

“I’m not going to listen to you,” Anakin snarled.

Palpatine turned away. “Are you going to kill me?”

Anakin paused. Was he? On one hand, it would be treason, wouldn’t it? Did two opposite acts of treason cancel eachother out? On the other hand, he thought back to the discussions that he’d had with Obi-Wan, with Padmé, about the state of the Republic. The Chancellor’s executive powers. The feeling that all the Jedi had had recently, that there was something going on behind this war that they didn’t understand. 

“I would like to,” he admitted. 

“I know you would. I can feel your anger. It gives you focus,” Palpatine said. He turned back around to face Anakin. “Give into the darkside, Anakin. Know its power. It will make you stronger than any Jedi.”

Anakin thought of Padmé and the twins they’d found out she was carrying. He didn’t want to be stronger. He just wanted them. 

“I am going to turn you over to the Jedi Council,” he told Palpatine.

His expression did not change. “Of course. You should. But you’re not sure of their intentions.”

“I’m not sure of your intentions, either.” Anakin shot back. He pointed his lightsaber towards the Chancellor’s desk. “Sit there. I am going to comm the Temple, and I am not letting you out of my sight.”

He directed Palpatine into the chair at the desk, and then, holding his lightsaber to Palpatine’s throat, used the comm on the desk to contact Master Windu.

Mace Windu’s form appeared, blue and shimmering. “Skywalker, what’s wrong? Obi-Wan has destroyed Grievous. We are on our way to the Senate Offices to make sure the Chancellor turns over his emergency powers.”

“I am with him now,” Anakin said grimly. “And he won’t turn over his powers. He is the Sith we have been looking for. I am holding him here until you can arrive as back-up.” Anakin glanced over to Palpatine, who was not looking at Master Windu’s holographic form, rather he was calmly staring straight ahead, hands folded on the desk in front of him.

“A Sith?” Mace Windu said in surprise. “Okay, Skywalker. Stay there,” he commanded emphatically. “I will gather some Council Members.”

“And the Senate,” Anakin interjected. “They need to know what is happening. That he is a traitor. He was working with Dooku!” he exclaimed, suddenly realizing that it must be true.

Mace nodded grimly. “You’re right. I’ll keep them informed. If he tries something, you have my permission to use whatever force you deem necessary.” With that, the call ended. 

“Do you really think the Jedi will be content to just hand power back over to the Senate?” Palpatine sneered. “You know that they are power hungry. You have witnessed their corruption! They will want me dead.”

“Because you are a Sith! You have betrayed the Republic, Chancellor. You have betrayed the whole galaxy! You have manipulated all of us into this war!”

Palpatine shook his head delicately, aware of Anakin’s thrumming lightsaber inches from his neck. “It was unfortunate, yes, that so many had to die. But now that I am in power, now that I control the Republic and the Separatists, the bureaucracy that you so hate will be gone. I can end slavery on Tatooine with a word. I can put the war criminals behind bars without waiting months for a trial and endless deliberation. Isn’t that what you want?” 

Anakin looked out the window towards 500 Republica. It was. It was what he wanted, wasn’t it? 

He thought of his mother. She could have been saved with a single order. She could have left Tatooine. 

He thought of the horrors of the war. The Twi’leks, the Lurmen, the Togruta of Kiros, the Mandalorians, and all the worlds that had had atrocities committed against them. 

He thought of Padmé. While he had fought for the Republic on the fronts, she had fought for democracy in the Senate. 

“Not like this.”

Palpatine made a face of disgust. “You are weaker than I thought. When I first met you, I sensed the power within you. I knew the Jedi would waste your potential. You would be my apprentice, and I would rule the galaxy with you by my side. 

“But I was wrong,” he hissed, standing up, ignoring Anakin’s lightsaber. “You are weak! Your love for your wife makes you weak,” he said, all but spitting the phrase ‘your wife’. “Your commitment to Kenobi makes you weak. And your commitment to the Council, to the Republic makes you a fool!” he spat, extending his arms, shoving Anakin away with the Force.

Anakin slammed back against the wall on the other side of the room. 

Two lightsaber hilts appeared in Palpatine’s hands, summoned from the sleeves of his robes. Two blood red blades thrummed to life.

Anakin jumped up, lightsaber at the ready, as Palpatine leapt through the air toward him, snarling. 

Anakin brought up his lightsaber to redirect one of the red blades while he spun away from the range of the other. Palpatine slashed. Each slash, each jab, each attack came at Anakin stronger and quicker than he’d imagined. 

As they fought, Anakin felt the tendrils of anger on the edges of his consciousness.

Palpatine had him in a corner. He jabbed. Anakin jumped up and flipped over the lightsabers, over him.

Not just the anger he’d felt when Palpatine had revealed his betrayal. But the anger he’d felt when he’d slaughtered the Tuskens. When he’d attacked Clovis.

Their lightsabers clashed over and over again in a whirlwind of red and blue. The strength and offensiveness of Anakin’s Djem So countering Palpatine’s angry and chaotic Juyo. 

Everything about this war had been a lie. Everything he’d done in this war, everything he’d sacrificed… 

Anakin saw an opening. Before he could take it, blue lightning shot from Palpatine’s fingertips, flowing into Anakin’s chest. He was once again knocked off his feet and into the desk.

The air smelled of burnt cloth and flesh

He growled in frustration. This fight was going on too long.

Palpatine cackled as he rose up from the ground. “Yes, Anakin! Give in to your anger! Give into hate! Only then can you defeat me!”

He charged at Palpatine, who treated his attacks like mere inconvenience. 

Anakin could feel the anger that had long ago taken root in his heart. It wasn’t giving him strength. It was a leech. But he could not remove it, or ignore it. But he would not give into it.

He parried every attack Palpatine threw at him, countering every one with a blow of his own. 

With a thrum-hiss, suddenly Anakin wasn’t alone. Masters Windu, Fisto, Tiin, and Kolar were with him, surrounding the Chancellor. 

“It’s over, Chancellor,” Master Windu declared. “You’ve lost.”

Palpatine snarled, and a wave of Force energy rolled off of him, knocking all of them, including Anakin, off of their feet. 

Windu and Fisto were the first back on their feet, each catching one of Palpatine’s blades on one of their own.

Anakin was just about done with being thrown across the damn room. He jumped up, and attacked Palpatine from behind, only to be met with more lightning as Palpatine swung around.

He was ready for it this time. He caught it on his blade, deflecting it back at him. At the same time, Master Windu disarmed him of one blade, while Master Fisto disarmed him of the other. The deflected lightning caught Palpatine in the chest, knocking him to the ground.  
Palpatine looked at Anakin. He snarled, “They will never let you have your wife. They will never-”

With one smooth motion, Windu drove his lightsaber through his heart. 

Anakin stumbled back, both from shock and exhaustion. He deactivated his lightsaber and the others did the same. 

“You should have taken him prisoner,” Anakin said. “This will not look good to the Senate.”

“How it looks to the Senate is the least of our worries,” Master Fisto said mildly.

Master Windu shook his head. “Skywalker has a point. It won’t look good.” He looked Anakin in the eye. “But I had to do it. He was too dangerous to be left alive. We don’t have the resources to contain that kind of power.” 

Anakin nodded. He knew that he was right. 

“You have done well here, Skywalker,” Master Windu admitted. “But you have a lot of explaining to do.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin and Padmé face the Council.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you everyone who has read chapter one and liked/left kudos/commented so far! This chapter will deal more with specifically the fallout with Anakin and the Jedi, and future chapters will deal with what has been happening with the Senate and the Galaxy at large.

Anakin wondered if every Jedi feared the Council chambers as much as he did. Did anything good ever happen up here?

In the wake of Palpatine’s execution, the Council members had been summoned immediately back to Coruscant. 

Anakin stood in front of them, unsure if he was about to face a trial or a debriefing. 

“So, Young Skywalker, an interesting few days you have had, hmm?” asked Master Yoda. 

Anakin shrugged, not knowing how to respond to that.

“Find out about Palpatine’s treachery, how did you?” the green Jedi Master questioned.

“We were speaking in his office. He basically confessed.”

“Why would he do such a thing?” demanded Master Windu.

Anakin looked down at the floor. “I believe he was manipulating me.” He stopped, then corrected himself. “No, I know he was manipulating me. He was trying to get me to turn to the darkside.”

The Council members made noises of shock. Only Yoda, Windu, and Obi-Wan did not look surprised.

“What, specifically, did he say to you?” Master Windu prodded. 

Anakin sighed, and tried to recall the words that had been spoken that day. “I was expressing to the Chancellor my desire to be helping Master Kenobi take down Grievous. He believed that the Council was overlooking my abilities. He offered to train me in the ways of the dark side.”

He could tell by the expressions of the Council members that they could read between the lines of what he was saying. That he also believed that the Council was overlooking his abilities. But he ignored their looks and pressed on. “He said that the dark side had powers beyond what the Jedi control. He said that with the dark side, I could save Padmé.”

An uneasy grumble rippled through the Council.

“To your wife, you refer, Young Skywalker?” Master Yoda asked.

Anakin looked at him, rather than at the floor. “Yes.”

Another grumble, louder this time.

“You have betrayed the Order!” Master Fisto exclaimed.

Several Masters rumbled their agreement.

“He saved the Order!” Obi-Wan disagreed. “If it hadn’t been for Anakin, we might never have discovered Palpatine, let alone defeat him!”

Before anyone could argue with him, Master Windu interrupted. “Enough!” He turned to Anakin. “We haven’t finished discussing what happened that night. When he offered to train you, what did you say?” he asked, leaning forward in his Council chair.

Anakin crossed his arms. “When he said that the dark side could save Padmé, I realized that he had been manipulating me.” He glanced at Master Yoda. “As you know, Master, I have been having terrible visions and dreams of death. Of Padmé’s death. When he said that, I realized that they must be coming from him. He said that it wasn’t him that was manipulating me, but you, the Council. I said that I wouldn’t listen to him. I said that I wasn’t going to kill him. I called you, Master Windu, instead. I held him at lightsaber point as I did so, and when I continually refused his offer, he decided that I was weak, and fought me.”

Master Windu did not look content with his explanation. Master Yoda looked deeply troubled. “What, exactly, was it that he offered you? How was he tempting you to the dark side?”

“With power. With acclaim. He promised me peace for the galaxy.” Anakin resolutely did not make eye contact with Obi-Wan as he continued. “He knew that I had felt that Master Kenobi and the Council were overlooking my abilities.”

“But that’s not all.”

“No.” He looked back at his feet and sighed. “He told me that Padmé faced certain death, unless I had the power of the darkside.”

“Why would you think the Senator’s life was in danger?” Master Koon asked. 

“Because she is pregnant. My visions were of her dying in childbirth.”

The Council chamber erupted into shouting.

Master Yoda ignored them all. “Then, refuse him, why did you?” he asked. Anakin sensed only curiosity from the enigmatic Grand Master.

Anakin was silent for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. “Because of Padmé, I suppose.” He paused again. “For the entirety of our relationship, I have been scared of losing her. I have come to realize that if I do lose her, it will be because of my own actions, not because of the actions of others. If I turned to the dark side, I knew I would lose her. And what he was offering, it wasn’t peace. It was enslavement. It was against everything that Padmé has fought for in the Senate.”

“It was his love for Padmé and his relationship with her that saved him,” Obi-Wan said immediately. “He should not be punished for it.”

Now, Anakin did look at Obi-Wan, and he was surprised to see that his former Master looked… almost proud? He felt a burst of warmth towards him in that moment that fought against the cold he always felt in these chambers. 

Master Fisto huffed. “It might have saved him, but he wouldn’t have even been worried about this Senator if he hadn’t been in a relationship with her in the first place!”

“But clearly the Chancellor’s manipulation of Jedi Skywalker began before his relationship with Senator Amidala, and extended beyond that,” Master Ti interjected. 

Before any more discussion could break out, Master Yoda looked at him and spoke. “Young Skywalker, much to discuss, we have. Summon you at the end of these discussions, we will.”

Anakin swallowed. He did not have a good feeling about this.

\--

He wasn’t sure how long he waited outside the Council Chambers. Over two hours. He paced. He sat. He tried to meditate. Tried, being the operative word. Mostly, he thought about how he’d got here. Everything that he’d done that had led him to these events. He went through past conversations with Palpatine in his mind, now able to clearly see the manipulation.

He thought back to every thing that hadn’t seemed right about this war: Master Sifo Dyas ordering a clone army ten years before war breaks out, the way the it sometimes seemed like the Seperatist Senate and Dooku were two separate entities, those chips that Fives had tried to warn them about.

Fives. Anakin swore under his breath. How many Jedi, how many clones had laid down their lives for this kriffing war?

Sometime around the third hour of deliberation, as the sun was setting over the Coruscanti horizon, Padmé appeared, accompanied by Master Billaba and a boy that Anakin assumed must be her new padawan. 

Even under the circumstances, Padmé stole his breath away. Her brown curls hung mostly loose around her face, a few strands pulled back. Her eyes full of a mix of indignation - probably at being summed to the Jedi Temple so late in the evening- and worry and love.

“Anakin,” she called out to him as they approached.

He immediately got up from where he was sitting outside the Council chamber and strode over to her, wrapping her up in his arms, careful to be mindful of her very large baby bump. 

After a long moment, she pulled back enough to look at him. “Ani, what’s going on?” She looked back at Master Billaba. “They wouldn’t tell me anything. Did something happen during your meeting with the Council?”

There had been three days between Palpatine’s defeat and the Council meeting. During that time, he’d been allowed to stay with Padmé. Well, they hadn’t locked him in his quarters, so he’d taken that as permission to stay wherever the hell he wanted to. And his quarters in the Temple hadn’t been his home in a long time. Padmé had been extremely busy in those three days with Senate business, but it was still better than being around all the busybodies in the Temple. 

“It went about like I expected it to,” he said. “Obi-Wan defended me,” he continued, with a bit of surprise creeping into his voice.

“Of course he did!” Padmé said with a gentle smile. “He’s your friend; he trusts you.” 

Anakin nodded.

“I don’t know what they think of me right now,” he admitted. “It looks bad, Padmé.”

She shook her head. “You were manipulated. Palpatine was a Sith! The Council missed it just as much as you did!” She stepped back fully from his embrace, crossing her arms so they rested on top of her stomach. “And you know what I think of their attachment rules,” she said, loud enough for Master Billaba and her padawan to hear. 

The door to the Council Chamber opened and Obi-Wan stepped out, looking more solemn than Anakin had ever seen him. 

“Padmé, Anakin, we are ready to see you now,” he said. He glanced past them. “Thank you Master Billaba, Padawan Dume,” he said, with a slight bow of the head.

Master Billaba and her padawan - Padawan Dume - bowed in return and turned to leave. 

Anakin felt his heart in his throat. He truly did not know what was awaiting them within the Council Chambers. The Force had no answers for him; it hummed only in anticipation.

He grasped Padmé’s hand in his own, and with a quick glance at her, let Obi-Wan usher them into the chamber.

Obi-Wan took his seat as Padmé and Anakin stood in the middle of the chairs. 

“A very long deliberation, this has been,” Master Yoda began. “In full agreement, we are not, but come up with a solution, we have.”

Anakin noticed that none of the Council Members looked particularly pleased. In particular, the auras of Obi-Wan, Master Fisto, and Master Tiin all rippled with dissatisfaction. 

At that moment, Anakin realized how much he cared about this decision. His relationship with Padmé might be the most important thing in his life, but the Jedi Order was his life. He didn’t know what he would do, or what he would be without it. 

Master Windu cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Skywalker, we want to start by saying that we do understand and appreciate the gravity of what you have spared both the Order and the entire Galaxy from by helping us find and kill Chancellor Palpatine. And we know that it is natural for Jedi to be tempted, and you are to be commended for resisting that temptation.”

“But?” Anakin asked.

“But,” Master Windu continued, shooting him an annoyed look for interrupting him, “The depth of the Chancellor’s influence on you is still… unknown. Even to you. And on top of that, you have still broken the Code,” he said with a meaningful glance at the senator. “We could expel you for that alone. But we aren’t going to.”

A whoosh of air rushed out of Anakin. “You’re not?” he asked, hardly believing it.

“Don’t think you are getting off with no consequences,” Windu all but snapped.

Padmé gave his hand a little squeeze. 

“What consequences?” she demanded. “From where I am standing, Anakin has saved us all. You should see his success as a result of the love he feels, not something that happened in spite of it.” Anakin felt a wave of the love he felt for her wash over him as he smiled a bit, despite himself.

Master Windu gave a nod of acknowledgement. “We agree. That is why we are not requiring that he give up his marriage with you. We do ask that it remain a secret, however. We are not changing the rules on attachment, merely making an exception, as we seem to do too frequently for you, Skywalker. We don’t want any other Jedi to get any foolish ideas.”

Anakin nodded. He didn’t love the idea of keeping their relationship a secret forever, and he could tell that Padmé didn’t either. But it wasn’t like they weren’t used to it. And now he wouldn’t have to make up excuses for why he was so rarely at the Temple when he was on Coruscant.

“Also,” Master Windu continued, “We are invoking our legal right to your child.”

With that, the temperature in the room dropped. Padmé gasped, and Anakin staggered back a step. 

“You are what?” he growled. He turned so that he could look at each Master in turn. All of them but Obi-Wan looked calm and serene about this decision.

Master Windu sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Your children are going to be strong in the Force. Very strong. We can all sense it.” The other Council members nodded in agreement. Anakin clenched his jaw. He shouldn’t be surprised that they could sense not only that Padmé was carrying twins, but that they would both be strong in the Force. 

“It would be the best thing for both of them to be trained here at the Temple, but Master Kenobi-” here Windu shot a glare at Obi-Wan, “has argued that we should not take both of your children from you two. We have agreed.”

“I’ll leave the Order,” Anakin said quickly, with a shake of his head. His voice cracked a little, and he wasn’t sure if it was from fear or anger. “I’m not letting you take one of our children away from us, away from Padmé.” She had gone stock still next to him, desperately clutching at the hand she was holding. Her face was pale. 

“A great travesty, it would be, and a possibly a great danger, to not train such a powerful child in the ways of the Jedi,” Master Yoda said, having mostly been watching quietly up until this moment. “Whether or not you stay in this Order, Young Skywalker, one of your children, the Jedi are claiming.”

Anakin felt his emotions swell up in his chest, almost choking him. Anger, at the Jedi for their cruelty and for their stupid rules. Fear, because this had been their fear for months now, that the Jedi would try and take their children from them. But usually, the Jedi respected the parent’s wishes, though legally they didn’t have to. 

He thought of his mother, and how hard that must have been for her to have to give him up, and they had been in a much worse living situation than he and Padmé were in. 

He let go of Padmé’s hand to wrap an arm around her, and startled to realize that she was shaking. Padmé, he knew, hadn’t wanted this for their children. She had wanted to raise them on Naboo, with her family and with him. He had wanted that, too. 

After a long moment, Padmé spoke up, with a slight tremor in her voice. “So you’re blackmailing him to keep him in the Order? Is that what is happening here? You want your precious Chosen One here in your Temple, so you’re going to kidnap one of his children to keep him in line?” she demanded incredulously.

“We prefer not to see it as kidnapping,” Master Windu said. “It is truly what is best for all Force sensitive children. And like we said, we are still uncomfortable with the amount of influence Palpatine has had over Jedi Skywalker. We prefer that he remain here, with us.”

“I’ll do it,” Anakin agreed, before Padmé could respond. She whipped around to look at him, betrayed. “But I have conditions of my own.”

Master Windu looked skeptically at him. “I don’t know that you are in any place to negotiate.”

“Hear him out,” Obi-Wan said in a pained voice. “If you are going to truly do this, he deserves to have some say in it. They both do.”

“Hear your conditions, we will,” Master Yoda said in a way that made it clear that he was not automatically agreeing to those conditions.

Anakin reached down to once again take Padmé’s hand in his flesh one. “I will be allowed to see my child, and interact with them here in the Temple. We will say that I am the one who discovered them.” He looked over at Master Koon. “You found Ahsoka as a child and kept in contact with her.” 

He nodded. “That’s right; I did.”

Anakin nodded to himself and took a deep breath. “When the child turns ten, I will take them as my Padawan.”

At this, a few Masters made noises of disagreement. Master Windu exchanged a look with Yoda. “Fine. But they cannot know of their connection to either you or the Senator. Or that they have a twin. Failure on either of your parts to comply will result in your expulsion from this Order.” 

Anakin nodded. “I understand. But both children will stay with Padmé for the first year. Most younglings don’t come to the Temple until they are at least that old; it won’t hurt to have them with us during that time.”

Master Yoda nodded. “Allow this, we will, and trust that attempt to run from your responsibilities, you will not.”

“How will you choose,” Padmé asked in a cold voice. “How are you going to choose which of my babies you will take from me? Or am I supposed to decide which one I must hand over to you?”

“We will take the one with the higher midichlorian count,” Master Windu said, as if such a thing were obvious. “If they are fraternal twins, of course. If they are identical, it hardly matters.”

Anakin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They already knew that Padmé was carrying fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. He said nothing. Padmé dug her nails into his hand. 

“Are we done here?” he asked shortly.

“Yes. You are free to go.”

Anakin strode out of the Council Chambers, Padmé next to him, still holding tightly to his hand.

They had only taken a few steps outside the door when they heard the doors open and closing quickly behind them. “Anakin!” Obi-Wan called. He walked quickly to catch up with them. “Wait,” he said, putting a hand on Anakin’s shoulder to stop them. Anakin turned around to face him, and tried very hard to remember that Obi-Wan was on their side in all of this. 

Obi-Wan gave both of them a regretful look. “I am so sorry,” he said, with an earnestness that was wholly sincere. “I tried to argue that this was unnecessary, that the both of you should not be punished for Anakin’s misconduct” he shook his head, cutting himself off. “I tried to argue that this wasn’t even something that warranted a punishment,” he said ruefully. 

Padmé reached out to lay a hand on Obi-Wan’s arm. “We know you did all you could,” she said, and Anakin could see the tears shining in her eyes. 

Anakin nodded at his former master, hoping it conveyed without speaking that he was grateful for the words he’d spoken on their behalf. 

“We should go,” was all he said. Obi-Wan sighed, and looked back at the Council Chambers. “Yes. I just wanted to say that I am truly sorry that this is happening to you both, and that I am here for you. Whatever you need,” he said, shooting him a look that said that he truly meant whatever. 

Obi-Wan headed back to the Council Chambers and Anakin dropped Padmé’s hand as they entered the Temple proper, making their way to the Temple’s landing platform. They walked silently and swiftly, ignoring any Jedi milling about. Anakin led her to the speeder he usually used while he was on Coruscant, and helped her inside.

The ride back to 500 Republica was silent. Anakin glanced over at her as often as he felt was safe. She sat stock still, arms wrapped protectively around her stomach.

It wasn’t until they were back in her apartment that she flung her arms around his middle and sobbed into his robes. He felt his own tears prickle at his eyes, and he rested his head on hers. They stood there for a long time.

“We can run away,” he offered, eventually, once her sobs began to even out. “Kriff the Jedi and kriff the Senate. We’ll just leave. Find some big city to get lost in, change our names.”

Padmé shook her head and leaned back in his arms to look up at him. “They’d find us. You know they would find us, even if Obi-Wan is on our side. They- they are so scared of you!” she cried in frustration.

Anakin winced. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “This wouldn’t be happening if you were with anyone else.”

She shook her head. “Ani, that’s not what I meant,” she said softly. “I just don’t understand them!” she huffed. “You saved them-and-and- this is how they thank you?” She sniffed, her nose runny from crying. “I don’t want our children to live a life on the run.”

“So you want one of them to grow up without any family at all?” he asked, bewildered. He knew that the Order was a Jedi’s family, but that had never really been true for him. He’d known his mother long enough to know the difference.

Her face crumpled, and she leaned her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her. “I’m sorry,” he said into her hair. “I know that’s not what you want.”

“I want them to have a good life! A stable, safe life! With family! With us,” she said, choked up. “Was it naive to think that that would be possible now that the war is over?”

Anakin shook his head. “I don’t think it’s naive. I think you underestimate the Jedi Council.” He closed his eyes. “What are we going to do, Padmé? What are we going to do?”

She stepped back from his embrace, wiping at her eyes. She made her way to one of the sofas in the sitting room. Anakin followed closely, sitting so that he could keep one arm around her. The sun had long set on Coruscant, and the only light currently in the apartment was from a couple of lamps and the lights of the city outside the window.

Padmé took a deep breath before speaking. “If this is really happening, we need to figure out what we are going to do. How we will conduct our lives. How we-” she paused, and Anakin could tell that she was trying to maintain her composure. “How we will make our family whole again. Because we will be together again, someday,” she said fiercely, turning to him. 

Anakin nodded. “We will.” He wasn’t sure he believed it. But he wanted to.

Padmé looked down at her lap and nodded to herself. “Okay. We can do this.”

They did not get any sleep that night, staying on the sofa, discussing their future, with help from Threepio, who brought caf for Anakin and a Nubian tea for Padmé that had a mild stimulant that was safe for pregnant women. 

They decided that they would insist that the children not have their midichlorians tested until the end of the year they’d been granted. They didn’t want to treat one child differently while they had them both. They decided- and this was their most difficult decision, that had had Anakin up and pacing the room, all but pulling his own hair out in frustration at their impossible situation- that their relationship could not be known to the child who was with Padmé. Not at first, at least. 

Since they had to keep their marriage a secret from the public, as per the Council’s orders, it would be too big a secret to ask a child to keep. Twelve, they decided, was a good age to tell the child. It would be safe at twelve. Until then, Anakin would have to continue sneaking in and out of the apartment to see his wife. Anakin still wanted to have a presence in both of his children’s lives, so he would still be around, as Padmé’s friend, the Jedi, providing security whenever possible. They figured twelve would be about the age when a child would start to question this story. 

And if he was going to be around, then his padawan would have to be around, too. By the time the twins were ten, they would all be together as often as possible, even if neither child knew the truth. 

As far as when to tell, or even if to tell the Jedi child… they still weren’t in total agreement, even after hours of discussion. Should they tell the child when they were young, and would still be able to live out some of their childhood with them, if they chose? Or should they wait until the child was knighted, fully trained and able to spend time with them even if they chose to remain in the Order? Or maybe as an older padawan, mostly trained but not fully inducted into the Order? However, both children would be told about the other at the same time, regardless of when they were told about their parents. 

The easiest decision, beyond not testing for midichlorians right away, was that Anakin would not stay in the Order forever. He would stay long enough to raise their child as much as possible, until they were old enough to make their own choice about staying in the Order or leaving. They would tell both of their children eventually, and then Anakin would leave to be with Padmé and at least one of their children. They did decide that the Jedi child shouldn’t be told at least until a few years into their apprenticeship with Anakin. If the Jedi child preferred to stay in the Order, at least they would all have some time together during that time. 

As the sun rose over Coruscant, Anakin and Padmé drifted off to sleep on the sofa, holding tightly to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I hope everyone’s reasoning and motivation in this chapter made sense. Trying to convey why this had to happen was really difficult, lol. Please leave kudos/comments below, especially if you have any questions about the chapter!! 
> 
> I have been able to get these two chapters out fairly quickly because I am on Spring Break, but that is over starting Tuesday, so I have no idea what that will do to my updating schedule. As of right now, I have quite a bit of free time, but I did just get a second job, so who knows. I do really love writing this, so I hope people are enjoying reading it! 
> 
> Feel free to stop by and say hi on my tumblr here.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Padmé deals with grief, the Senate, and an unexpected visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full confession: the timeline of TCW: s7 and RotS are completely a mystery to me, so I am just winging it. Who cares. It’s FINE. 
> 
> Also, I did not expect to get this chapter out so soon, but all of my university classes are cancelled for a bit due to the coronavirus until they can be moved online. Stay safe out there <3

In the aftermath of Palpatine’s death, the Senate had been awash with confusion and high emotion. Many Senators were not happy with a military coup, and to be entirely honest, Padmé wasn’t fully, either, and her husband had been a part of it.

Not that she wasn’t happy that Palpatine had been found out and dealt with, it’s just that she wished that he had been a normal corrupt politician, so that democracy could have dealt with him, rather than a mostly unregulated arm of the military. 

Thankfully, however, Palpatine’s status as a Sith and his red lightsabers were enough for many Senators to tie him to Dooku, and therefore brand him as a traitor to the Republic. For those who needed more proof, it was discovered (or rediscovered, in this case) quickly, thanks to Anakin: biochips implanted in every clone soldier, that would enable them to be turned against the Jedi. Not to mention the discovery of a private comm channel that Paplatine used to contact Dooku, the Trade Federation, and the Techno Union. 

For those that were convinced, but still uneasy about the Jedi involvement, of which there were only a few, mostly neutral worlds, the fact that Master Windu had been in contact with Mas Amedda as he had gone to confront the Chancellor had helped assuage some fears. This action had also helped implicate the Vice Chancellor in Palpatine’s crimes, as he had not passed on Master Windu’s information to the Senate at large. The fact that there was footage of Palpatine attacking Anakin first, who had clearly arrested him, also helped. 

But just because the Senate had been calmed, didn’t mean that Padmé’s work was over. Instead, after the meeting with the Council two days prior, Padmé had thrown herself into her work more than ever before, trying to block out her sorrow. 

In this period of transition, there was plenty of work to distract her. There was reaching out to the Separatist worlds, especially those who’d left due to the corruption of the Republic, there were several upcoming trials, including Mas Amedda’s, Nute Gunray’s (as well as several other members of the Trade Federation), and Prime minister of Kamino Lama Su. And those were just of the people who had been arrested in the last five days. 

There were also questions of who would lead the Senate next. An election was planned to take place two days later, for both Chancellor and Vice Chancellor. Several Senators had been nominated, including Bail Organa, who was seen as a strong, trustworthy voice who had always been loyal to the Republic while never trusting Palpatine, Ask Ask of Malastare, who was the favorite of the few Senators who remained loyal to Palpatine, and Kin Robb of Hapes, who was nominated due to her status as a member of the Council of Neutral Systems. 

Padmé herself had been nominated by Riyo Chuchi of Pantora, but had turned down the nomination for a couple of reasons. One, she knew that while her connection to Anakin Skywalker was currently a secret, she didn’t ever want people to look back on her actions and consider a conspiracy. Two, she was only weeks away from being the mother of twins, and while she wasn’t technically a single mother, she would still be the primary caregiver for her children, and she didn’t want nannies and handmaidens to raise her children. 

And third, the most politically relevant reason she declined to run was that her ideals were very close to those of Senator Organa. She did not want to split the votes of her party, especially when Senator Organa was seen as the older, more trustworthy candidate.

Padmé couldn’t help wondering, somewhat despairingly, if that was not an accurate assessment. After all, while neither of them had trusted Palpatine all that much, especially since the passing of the Military Creation Act, Padmé had trusted him for many years in a way that Bail never had. She was one of the main reasons Palpatine had gotten power in the first place. That was not something people were likely to forget anytime soon, even if many Senators were more likely to evaluate her on her actions since becoming Senator, and not on those actions she’d taken as a desperate, fourteen year old Queen. 

And even beyond Palpatine, Padmé wondered if she didn’t sometimes see too much of the good in people. Anakin certainly thought so, at times, though she knew he also loved that about her. She thought back to her endorsement of Rush Clovis for leader of the Banking Clan, and how she knew from later conversations with Bail that he had voted against the appointment. 

Just because she hadn’t accepted the nomination for Chancellor, doesn’t mean that her hat was completely out of the ring. Immediately after declining Senator Chuchi’s nomination, Bail himself had nominated her for Vice Chancellor, and she did not reject it. 

Once again, she was far from the only candidate whose name was up for the office, her dear friend Mon Mothma being another one, but she knew that the responsibilities of Vice Chancellor would be considerably less than that of the Chancellor, and in many ways, less than even that of a Galactic Senator, since her role would not be as representative of any one world, but as the being in charge of running and mediating the Senate. 

“Senator,” Dormé said, peeking her head into Padmé’s office in her apartment. Padmé looked up in surprise. She hadn’t realized it was late enough for Anakin to be home, yet. “You have a visitor. Captain Typho has let her in.” Instead of telling her who it was, she just smiled mysteriously.

Padmé sighed as she looked up from one of the five different datapads she had scattered on her desk, each one for a different committee or duty of hers. “Thank you, Dormé. I’ll be right there.” Dormé pursed her lips, but said nothing. Padmé knew that her handmaiden was just worried about her, but she was fine. Everything was just so… much. 

Dormé had taken an extended leave of absence during a majority of the war to help with refugee efforts in the systems around Naboo, but after Teckla died on Skipio a few months ago, she came back into Padmé’s service, for which she was extremely grateful. Dormé was such a steadying presence in her life, and to have her back in such a time of chaos was very much welcomed.

She quickly wrapped up what she was working on and stood up from her desk, which was quite a bit more difficult than it used to be. She followed Dormé in the main living space, curiosity piqued as to the identity of the mysterious visitor.

Sitting on one of her sofas, to Padmé’s surprise and delight, was Ahsoka, a little older and taller than she remembered, but it was her all the same. As she walked into the room, Ahsoka’s eyes lit up and she quickly stood up and strode over to her. “Padmé!” she exclaimed. 

Padmé smiled as she opened her arms to hug her, but couldn’t help the tears she felt prick at her eyes. She had been so worried about her since she’d left the Order almost a year ago. Seeing her here, in her apartment, safe, especially after what Anakin told her she’d been through after leaving the Order, it made her heart feel a little bit lighter.

“Ahsoka!” she said, so pleased, as they embraced tightly. “What are you doing here?” she asked, still overcoming her surprise.

Ahsoka grinned, stepping back, letting Padmé get a good look at her. She was wearing a leather headband that was very different than the one that Padmé was familiar with, and similar clothes to those she’d worn as Anakin’s padawan, as well as a dark blue cloak. 

“I had to come,” she said. “As soon as I’d heard what’d happened with Anakin and Master Windu and the Chancellor, I knew that I had to come here and see him. I was going to go straight to the Temple and demand that they let me in,” she said, and Padmé could tell that she was only partially joking, “but the Force was telling me to come here first.” She gave Padmé’s pregnant belly a knowing grin. “I think I know why.” 

Padmé only smiled at her. “I know that you know about Anakin and me,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t know why you would be surprised.”

Ahsoka chuckled. “Yeah, I knew about you two, but I didn’t expect you to start having children!”  
“I suppose we didn’t either,” Padmé admitted. “Let’s sit,” she said, motioning back to the sofas. “My feet are killing me these days, and these two are really throwing out by back,” she said with a fond huff, one hand around her stomach. 

“Two?” Ahoska asked, eyes wide.

“Oh yes,” Padmé said with a smile, “I’m having twins. A boy and a girl.” She tried not to sound too sad as she said that, but as much joy as the children she was carrying brought her, there was also sadness surrounding their impending birth, something Padmé would never forgive the Council for. 

“Is everything okay, Padmé?” Ahoska asked as they sat down on the sofa. She angled her body so she was facing her, face etched with concern. “I know everything is going to be crazy for a while, what with the Sith Lord in the Senate and all, but everything just seems...tense.”

Padmé sighed and looked behind her, out the window towards the Temple. “No,” she said. “I don’t want to say that nothing is okay, because it’s not true, but in my worst moments it certainly seems like it.” She turned back around towards Ahsoka. “The Jedi are going to take one of my children,” she whispered, still not fully believing it.

Ahsoka’s eyebrows rose, but otherwise, showed no signs of visible surprise, letting Padmé speak.

\--

After she was done explaining the events of the last few days, Ahsoka crossed her arms, leaning back against the sofa, and sighed. “I wish I could say I was shocked, but I’m not,” she admitted. “The Jedi have truly lost their way; for so long the dark side clouded so much that they clung to the only thing that they could be sure of,” she said sadly, “tradition.”

Padmé nodded. “I have always respected the Jedi, and been thankful for their intervention during the Invasion of Naboo,” Padmé began, “but more and more, I have questioned their judgement.” A small, harsh laugh escaped her. “You know that Anakin always has,” she said, and Ahsoka agreed with a nod and a wry grin. 

“I suppose he has to be right sometimes,” Padmé joked, making Ahsoka smile. 

“I’m always right!” Anakin said indignantly, walking through the door from the landing pad at that moment. He stopped in his tracks upon seeing the two of them. “Snips?” he said, dumbly. 

Ahsoka gave a wry smile and waved. “Hi, Skyguy,” she said, standing up to greet him. He walked over to where they were sitting and reached out to clasp her hand in greeting. “You act like I didn’t see you just a month ago or so,” she said with a grin.

Padmé shook her head lightly at the emotional distance that Jedi had instilled in them. Although they weren’t far off in age, she knew that Ahsoka was like a daughter to Anakin, even if their relationship was more sibling-like much of the time. 

He motioned for Ahsoka to sit back down and took his own seat on the other side of Padmé. He reached over to give her a quick peck on the cheek. “Hi,” he said quietly, with a smile. Padmé felt herself smile in return, as she always did when he came home.

“What are you doing here, Snips?” Anakin asked curiously, redirecting their attention to their guest. 

She shrugged, spreading her hands, palms up. “I guess I don’t really know. I heard what had happened here, and I knew that you were involved.” She paused, considering. “I guess I felt the Force guiding me. Telling me that it was urgent. Rex wasn’t thrilled that I was charging back to Coruscant,” she continued fondly, “but he knows that I can handle myself.” She gave Anakin a look. “I think he feels like he has to watch over me since you can’t.” 

Anakin pasted on his most “innocent” expression. “I don’t know where he would get such an idea,” Anakin joked. Padmé smiled at the two of them. She was glad that Ahsoka had so many parental figures in her life: Anakin, Rex, Obi-Wan, Master Koon. She supposed that her child would never be lacking in that regard, she told herself, trying to ignore the obvious. That she would not be one of those parental figures. 

“So what are you going to do, now?” Padmé asked her, trying to pull herself out of her negative thoughts. “Rex is on Mandalore, correct? Are you going to stay with him?” 

Ahsoka looked at them both thoughtfully. “I was,” she said slowly, “at least for a while, but now I feel like the Force was pulling me here for a reason.” Her expression turned serious. “Master Yoda was right in one thing he told you both. Force-sensitive children, especially powerful ones like yours are going to be,” she said, nodding to Padmé’s stomach, “should be trained.” She looked them both in the eyes in turn, nodded determinedly to herself. “So I’ll stay here, with you, Padmé, if you want, and help train the child that he-” she nodded at Anakin, “-can’t.” She looked at them, arms crossed, as if daring either one of them to argue with her. 

Before Padmé could say anything, Anakin laughed a little, surprised and happy, the first time she’d heard him do so since discovering Palpatine’s treachery. “I don’t know why you’d think I’d argue with you, Snips. I’d much rather you be here on Coruscant, with us, than out there in the galaxy on your own.”

Padmé shook her head fondly at her husband, before turning back to Ahsoka. Just as Anakin had thought of her as his daughter or younger sister, Padmé had as well. She had been crushed when Anakin had told her that Ahsoka had chosen to leave the Order, even though she had understood why. And now that she was back, and wanted to stay? 

“Oh, Ahsoka,” she said, unable to keep the emotion out of her voice. “That would be wonderful.” She leaned over and pulled her into a hug. She seemed surprised, at first, but quickly gave in and returned the embrace. 

\--

“I made up the guest bedroom for you,” Anakin said, stepping out to join Ahsoka on the balcony. Padmé had finally been convinced to go to bed, seeming more at peace then she’d had since their meeting with the Council. 

Ahsoka turned, and shot him a brief smile. He knew he’d seen her not too long ago, but it was still amazing to him how much she’d grown. She was almost as tall as him, now. “I’m sorry this is happening to you both,” she said, as he stood next to her by the rail, looking out over the Coruscanti skyline. 

Anakin shook his head and sighed. “You were right, Ahsoka.” He clutched the railing. “About the Jedi Order, and trust. Palpatine had been manipulating me for years,” he acknowledged, “but they didn’t trust me from the moment I walked into the Temple. I don’t know why I thought I could trust them, even a little.”

He felt Ahsoka’s hand on his shoulder. “Anakin,” she sighed sympathetically. “They were your family, your life, just as much as they’d been mine. I’m only sorry that I had the ability to leave, and you don’t.”

“At first, when I turned Palpatine over to Master Windu, and when he died, I thought I’d defeated my anger. If he’d been the one manipulating me, if he was at fault for all of this rage and anger I feel, then it should be gone with him.” He laughed darkly.

“I feel angrier every day, Ahsoka. How could they do this?” He’d often turned that thought over and over in his mind these last few days. How could they do this? How? Why? “I never thought the Jedi were this cruel.”

“Fear does funny things to people. And it’s natural to feel angry,” Ahsoka said, echoing a sentiment often expressed by Padmé. “You taught me to release my emotions, to be at peace with them, not to hold on to them and bottle them up.”

“So, what? I should just be at peace with everything that is happening?” he demanded.

Ahsoka shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what else you could do. You have one year for you and Padmé to spend with your children. Do you really want to spend it drowning in anger?”

Anakin chuckled. “When did you get so wise?” 

She bumped him with her shoulder. “I guess I had a good teacher.” She grinned quickly, before turning serious and looking down at her hands. 

“I’m sorry you won’t be able to be more a part of your children’s lives,” she said. “I hope you don’t think I’m overstepping anything by offering to help train the child that stays here.”

Anakin shook his head. “I don’t feel like that at all. I guess I’m just relieved that she’ll have help. That there’ll be someone there who can do what I should be doing.” He sighed. “I think I’ve accepted the reality of what is happening. If I can’t be here helping them both, then I am glad that someone I know and trust will be.”

\--

Two days later, in Naboo’s Senate pod, Padmé was thankful that she was so good at her expressionless regal “queen” face. 

She had lost the Vice Chancellor race. To Mon, for whom she was very happy, and knew would be a wonderful Vice Chancellor to Bail’s Chancellor. She shook her head slightly. She didn’t even know why she wanted the damn office. She loved Naboo. She loved representing Naboo. 

As she walked back to her Senate office after the votes had come in, she wasn’t even sure why she was so upset. She wanted to blame pregnancy hormones, but she knew that it was more than that. 

“Are you okay, Senator?” Dormé asked quietly as she and Ahsoka walked on either side of her. “I’m sorry you did not win.”

“Me, too,” Ahsoka echoed. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

Padmé shook her head and sighed. “I’m fine, both of you. Really.” She sighed again as they entered her office quarters. “I guess I just wanted that validation. That my peers would recognize…” she paused as she lowered herself into her seat behind the desk, “That I was right, suppose.” 

She shot the two of them a self deprecating smile. “Silly, isn’t it? I guess I just took so much flak for my anti-war, pro-negotiation stances that I thought that people would see me as someone who was right, rather than just an idealistic radical.”

“I don’t think it’s silly at all,” Dormé said, trying to comfort her. “I think that you would make a wonder Vice Chancellor, or even Chancellor someday, because you have always stuck to your beliefs and fought for what you believed to be right.” She frowned. “But I think that you being right might have played against you, so soon after it all happened. People don’t like to be reminded that they were wrong. Senator Organa has been in the Senate long enough that the other Senators associate him with stances outside of the war.”

Padmé tilted her head, contemplatively. There was certainly something to what Dormé was saying. Even before becoming a Senator, people already associated her with opposing the Trade Federation because of the Invasion, and it wasn’t even a full term in the Senate later than the Military Creation Act was written. 

“It is still frustrating though,” she said, looking down at the datapads on her desk. “I tried so hard to help the people of this galaxy, to end the war, and it is those actions that may have turned people against me.”

“But you did the right thing,” Ahsoka said, fiercely. “If the Senate can’t recognize that, then they’re bigger idiots than I thought.”

“If you weren’t the kind of person to fight for your beliefs despite the political consequences, you wouldn’t be you,” Dormé agreed, with a serene smile. 

Padmé returned the smile. “Thank you, both of you. I needed that.”

\--

The night of Padmé’s loss in the election for Vice Chancellor, Anakin climbed into their bed much later than he would have liked. 

Padmé was already in bed, but not asleep, lying on her side. She’d been reading one of her datapads until he’d come into the bedroom, but had put it on the nightstand, when he’d come in, smiling at him.

After quickly getting ready for bed, he slipped under the covers and moved so he could hold her from behind, his mechanical hand resting above her head on the pillow and his flesh hand resting on her belly, where he could most strongly feel the two bright lights in the Force that were their children. 

She turned her head so he could reach her lips to give her a kiss, as he always did when he came home. She hummed happily as they parted, lying back down on her pillow, putting her own hand around her stomach to meet his, so their fingers intertwined. 

“I’m sorry I’m home so late,” he apologized, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her shampoo. Her hair was so curly that his face tended to end up half buried in it when they cuddled like this. “It feels like all I’ve been doing is attending meetings all day,” he explained. “Updating all of us on our role now that the war is all but over.”

“You’re not that late, Ani,” she soothed, a smile in her voice. “I was just feeling a bit tired, so Ahsoka insisted that I go lay down,” she said, her voice clearly reflecting her fondness for his former Padawan. 

“Are you alright?” he asked in concern. He knew that the last few days had been taking a toll on her. His fear from early on in her pregnancy came rushing back. “What did AZ say?” he asked, referring to her medical droid. 

“It’s nothing to worry about,” she tried to reassure him. “I just had a long day. AZ agreed that it was just normal stress.”

“Well, good,” Anakin said in relief. He grinned into her curls. “I’m glad one of my lessons stuck with Ahsoka,” he said. 

“And what lesson is that?”

“Protect Senator Amidala,” he said, reaching over to kiss her cheek. She smiled as he did so, and pretended to try and swat him away. 

“I’m sorry about the election,” Anakin said after a few peaceful moments. “You would make a wonderful Vice Chancellor. Or Chancellor.”

Padmé sighed. “Thank you, Ani. But I’m not upset.” 

He hummed, unconvinced. 

I was frustrated this afternoon,” she admitted, and Anakin was once again upset that he still had to spend his days at the Temple, rather than with her, where she needed him. “When Bail was elected Chancellor, I thought that I was the obvious choice to stand next to him. But I guess my connection to Palpatine and to the war just couldn’t be overlooked.”

“Well, I think that the Senate is a bunch of bureaucratic fools. They are too blinded by politics to see what would be best for the whole galaxy,” Anakin told her. Politics really weren’t his thing, but he knew that Padmé would be an amazing leader, and that the Senate would have to come to their senses one day.

She laughed. “That certainly may be true,” she acknowledged. “But it isn’t as if Mon’s politics are all that different than my own. She was just less vocal than I was throughout the war. Maybe that was smarter, politically.” She turned her head to smile at him. “I find it hard to stay out of conflict, though. I think your bad habits are rubbing off on me.”

“Oh, I can think of plenty of times where you were the one dragging me into a fight,” he said with a grin. He was glad that they were talking like this, teasing and laughing. The past week had been so quiet and tense, both of them walking on eggshells, handling their grief in different ways. 

Padmé didn’t say anything, just smirked slightly and laid her head back down. “Have you been given any assignments, yet?” she asked, changing the subject.

He shook his head. “No. For now, the focus of the Jedi will be accompanying diplomats to meetings with the Separatists, as well as relief missions. There will probably be a few battles left, here and there, but without any of their leaders, this war is all but over.”

“What do you think about us going to Naboo?” she asked. “I know I talked about it before, but that all seems so long ago.” She sighed, idly playing with his fingers, still intertwined with hers. 

“I want to be with my family. I want to be somewhere away from all of this. Since I didn’t win the election, there is no reason that I can’t. The Senate will be in session for another week, and then I will still be three weeks out from my due date.”

She sighed again. “If we only have a year with both of our babies, I want to spend it on Naboo, where we can all be together. And surely, if you have a mission, the Council can give it to you over comm?” 

Anakin was sure that they wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but he was also sure that they really couldn’t do anything to stop him, at this point. 

“Okay, let’s do it,” he said. “Let’s go to Naboo.”

Suddenly, he felt a sharp movement under where his palm rested on Padmé’s belly.  
“I think they’re in agreement,” he said with a smile, and Padmé pulled his arm tighter around her. 

“Good,” she said, and Anakin could hear the sleep heavy in her voice.

He held her until she fell asleep, and then moved gently to his side of the bed, lying on his back, and let sleep carry him away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray for Ahsoka! I know she didn’t have a lot to do in this chapter, but that will change. Expect some of her POV later on :D Next chapter things really get moving (Or, as much as things will get moving in this story lol). I know this chapter was kinda a filler, so bear with me. I love to hear from you guys so definitely keep leaving comments! And feel free to say hi at my tumblr here


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin and Padmé's year on Naboo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Thanks to quarantine related free time I suddenly have, I managed to plot this sucker out. Right now, I think it’s going to about twenty chapters. This chapter is 3x the length of the previous ones, and I have no idea what future chapters will look like going forward. 
> 
> Because the plot is sort of… loose... there will be a lot of time jumps in the chapter, focusing on major events. Or some chapters will focus on like, one really busy month, lol.
> 
> All of that said, strap in folks, because this one is a rollercoaster.

Padmé sat on a chair out on the lawn at her family’s home in Varykino, with Artoo next to her, watching as Anakin and Ahsoka sparred on the lawn. She smiled as they traded jabs, both verbal and physical. 

They’d been on Naboo for a week now, and Padmé was extremely glad they’d decided to come here. Nothing Coruscant had to offer could compare to a sunny day in Naboo’s lake country. 

She idly rubbed her stomach as she’d been feeling some amount of discomfort for a little while now. She was less than two weeks out from her due date, and since she was carrying twins, AZ seemed sure that they would come early.

She and Anakin had already decided on names. Anakin had wanted their children to have Nubian names; he didn’t want anything but their surname to tie them to Tatooine.

The names Luke and Leia had ended up as her and Anakin’s favorite names. Neither name was very common among Padmé’s generation, but fairly common names all the same. 

Over in the distance, Anakin once again won the sparring match. Something Ahsoka said caused him to laugh.

He’d been so nervous to come to Naboo and face her parents. It had been sweet, really. They had decided that she would come a day or two early, so she could tell her parents the identity of the father of her children by herself, and then Anakin would follow. He’d insisted on packing her luggage for her, as she directed him from where’d she sat on the bed, and had peppered her with questions about her family and how they would take the news.

In the end, Padmé had been right. They had already liked Anakin from the first time they met him, right before the war, and they liked him now. They were obviously upset that they hadn’t been able to attend the wedding, but they had also understood the difficult circumstance that they had been in. It wasn’t Nubian culture to insert oneself into another’s private life. Family might get away with more than most, but her family had always respected her choices.

And, of course, her parents were delighted to have Anakin as a son-in-law. Sola had been over the moon that she’d been right all along about their feelings for one another. 

Padmé grimaced slightly as the pain she’d felt earlier returned with a stronger intensity. She turned to Artoo, who Anakin had tasked with keeping her company. “Artoo, would you go find AZ-7 for me?” 

He beeped in reply, and headed off towards the house. 

She turned back to watch Anakin and Ahsoka, who were now cooling down from their sparring session, and her thoughts turned again, as they so often did, to her children’s futures. One of them, she knew, would have a relationship with Anakin similar to Ahsoka’s. That of a Padawan, never able to fully have a parental figure. The other would hardly know Anakin at all for the first twelve years of their life. 

Her heart ached at the thought of her children not able to know their father. She loved Anakin with all of her heart, and she’d been so excited when she’d first discovered her pregnancy, not just because she wanted to be a parent, but because she wanted to be a parent with him. Knowing that neither one of her children would be able to experience that fully hurt her almost as much as the rest of all of this mess. 

It was hard to reconcile her dark thoughts with the beauty of the lake country, with its chirping birds, beautiful wildflowers, and the distant sound of water flowing, so she tried to steer away from them.

Instead, she thought of the year that they would have here, and all the memories that she and Anakin would make with their children. 

“You called for me, Mistress Padmé?” AZ said, coming up to hover next to her chair. 

“Yes,” she said, turning to look at him, hand still on her stomach. “I think I am having contractions,” she said, unconcerned. She’d been having those pains for the last half an hour or so, but they were far enough apart that she didn’t feel that there was any need to rush. 

“Oh!” AZ exclaimed. “Well, then I will stay here with you and monitor their timing, so that we may know if you are going into labor,” he said in that way of his, that was both serious and excited sounding. 

She nodded, at that moment felt another wave of pain. “There’s one right now,” she said, through slightly clenched teeth. The pain still wasn’t terrible, but it was getting more intense. 

Anakin and Ahsoka must have noticed the appearance of AZ, because they came jogging up to the house, having stopped meditating while she had been talking to the medical droid.

“Is something wrong?” Anakin asked, concern written all over his expression. 

“It’s nothing,” she said, “I’m just having some contractions.”

Anakin’s eyes went wide. “Are you having the baby?” at the same time as Ahsoka gasped, “You’re in labor?”

\--

Ahsoka paced outside the door of Anakin and Padmé’s room, where they were both was inside, with AZ and a midwife from a nearby town they’d contacted before coming to Naboo. 

After AZ had started monitoring Padmé’s contractions, it was another half hour before he’d determined that she was going into labor. At that point, they’d moved her upstairs to the bedroom and called the midwife. It was then that Ahsoka and Dormé had been kicked out of the room. 

That had been an hour ago. Since then, she’d commed Obi-Wan to let him know, as he’d been planning on stopping by once the babies were born, and had meditated for about as long as she could take. Now she was pacing. She knew that human births could either be fairly short or extremely long, so she wasn’t really sure what to expect.

“Ahsoka, you’re making me dizzy,” Dormé said, seated in a chair in the upstairs living area that the bedroom was connected to. “Come sit down.”

Ahsoka sighed as she flopped down on the more comfortable looking of two sofas. “I’m not very good at waiting,” she confessed with a wry smile.

Dormé smiled back at her. “Everything will be fine,” she tried to reassure her. “Women of almost every species do this everyday, all across the galaxy.”

“I know. It’s just that Anakin has been so worried about her. He tries not to be, but I don’t think he can help it.”

Dorme laughed. “Of course he can’t. He loves her. Of course he worries about her.” She looked at Ahsoka oddly. “Don’t you Jedi ever worry about the people you love?” 

She paused, and then amended her statement. “The people important to you, I suppose. Since you aren’t supposed to love.”

“They,” Ahsoka reminded her. “I’m not a Jedi anymore.” She could say that now without it hurting. Much. 

She considered Dormé’s question. “Of course Jedi worry. But they aren’t supposed to, no. Jedi are supposed to trust completely in the Will of the Force. Master Yoda says that all will be as the Force wills it. If a Jedi does worry, they are supposed to release that worry into the Force, because it can lead to fear, which can lead to-”

“Anger, hate, suffering,” Dormé interjected. “So Padmé has explained to me. I suppose that I don’t really understand, because when I try not to worry, I just worry more.”

Ahsoka chuckled. “Yeah, it’s not just you.”

There was a moment of quiet, cut by a particularly loud scream of pain from the bedroom. 

“Do you miss being a Jedi?” Dormé asked after a moment.

“Yes, and no,” Ahsoka said. “I miss my friends. I missed Anakin, before I came back, and Padmé, too, for that matter. I miss a lot of the routine, and the security I felt with the Order. But my life has so much more than it was when I was a Jedi. I’m happy to be on my own. It was hard at first, but I think I am finding my own path,” she said, glancing at the door as another shout came through.

Dormé shook her head. “I just don’t understand how an Order claiming to be dedicated to protecting people could do this to them,” she said. “Padmé has always respected the Jedi, and for them to do this to her, to Anakin, when he saved the galaxy?” She shook her head again. “It’s just so cruel.”

Ahsoka sighed. “I think, to them, they are really just trying to follow normal protocol as best they can. They are so attached to their traditions they don’t see how their normal protocol could ever be cruel.”

Both of them turned as the door opened, and Anakin stepped out, a small bundle in his arms and an enormous grin on his face. 

Ahsoka gasped and jumped off the couch, making her way over to Anakin.

“Meet Luke Skywalker,” he said proudly.

Ahsoka looked at the tiny, red little baby in his arms. A little strange looking, she decided, but cute all the same. “He’s beautiful.”

“He’s lovely,” Dormé agreed, and Ahsoka thought she looked a little misty-eyed. 

“Isn’t he? Padmé has Leia right now, but she’s just as perfect.”

Ahsoka shook her head in amazement. “I still can’t believe you have twins! Twins!”

He laughed, a little tearfully, looking down at his son. “I know. It all kind of feels like a dream.” Luke made a little cooing sound, and all three of them stood silently for a moment, watching him.

“I assume Padmé is doing well,” Dormé asked after a moment, reaching out to touch Luke’s tiny baby fingers.

“Tired,” Anakin said with a nod, “but otherwise doing fine. She wanted you to give her a few minutes before coming in, but then you can meet Leia.”

“Who's older?” Ahoska asked.

“Big brother, right here.” Anakin looked up at her. “Do you want to hold him?”

Ahsoka nodded. She’d helped out in the Temple crèche enough to know what she was doing. She let Anakin transfer Luke in his soft yellow blanket into her arms. 

“Hi, little guy,” she cooed softly. His eyes were closed, and he was squirming around a bit in her arms. He was so much smaller than the babies she held at the crèche, who were usually at least a year old. “He’s much cuter than Stinky,” she told Anakin with a smirk.

Anakin laughed. “I don’t think that that’s too hard.”

She glanced back down at Luke. “No, but he really is cute.” She could feel his Force presence, so strong already. She poked at his mind, and he immediately opened his eyes to stare at her. She laughed. “Sorry to bother you.”

“He’s got your eyes,” Dormé told Anakin.

“Do you want to hold him?” Ahsoka asked her, and she nodded eagerly.

While Dormé was holding Luke, Iala, the midwife, peeked her head out the door. “She says you can all come in now,” she said with a smile. “She’s ready to feed Luke.”

Dormé passed Luke back to Anakin and they all followed Iala into the bedroom. 

“Hi,” Padmé greeted them with a tired smile. Her curls were tied into a bun at the top of her head, and she was propped up and surrounded on the bed with half a dozen pillows, another tiny baby swaddled in her arms. 

Anakin smiled at her, and bent down to kiss her in greeting, before they carefully exchanged the children. Ahsoka thought about offering to help, but decided that they needed to figure stuff like this out on their own. 

“They’re beautiful, Padmé,” Dormé said with a smile, coming over to stand by the bed so she could look at Leia in Anakin’s arms. 

“Aren’t they?” she asked, as she positioned Luke to feed him. “I can’t get over how perfect they are. All their little fingers and toes.” She turned to Anakin. “I’ve already burped her, so she should be fine.”

“She’ll probably want to sleep,” said Iala from where she was seated. 

Dormé and Padmé continued chatting as she fed Luke, while Anakin brought Leia over to where Ahsoka was standing at the foot of the bed. While Luke had just a small amount of wispy blond hair and blue eyes, Ahsoka was surprised at how much dark brown hair Leia already had. Her big brown eyes were focused intensely on Anakin, who was gently rocking her in his arms.

“How does it feel to be a dad, Skyguy?” 

Anakin didn’t look away from Leia as he answered. “Wonderful. Terrifying.”

“Scarier than facing down a battalion of battle droids?” she teased.

He laughed softly. “Yes.” He looked up at her. “Honestly, besides facing Palpatine, the last time I was this scared was when you first became my padawan.”

“Really?” she asked, crossing her arms. She remembered her master being mostly irritated those first few days together. “What was so scary about me?”

He shrugged, and looked back down at baby Leia, who indeed started to drift off, blinking sleepily as Anakin continued to rock her. “You were just a kid. When I was fourteen, Obi-Wan and I were mostly going on diplomatic missions or protection detail, not fighting in a war. I was twenty years old, newly knighted, and here was this snippy kid I had to protect. It was terrifying.”

“And now you’re twenty-three and you have two babies to protect. At least you don’t have to worry about the war,” she joked. “And hey, you’ll be able to handle ages fourteen to seventeen no problem.” 

\--

The next three months flew by so quickly that Anakin didn’t really have time to feel anything but joy. Obi-Wan stopped by on his way back to Coruscant from a mission for a day or so. Padmé’s family visited again from Theed, though they once again had to leave Ryoo and Pooja home for now, as they were still too young to keep so many secrets. 

It wasn’t until everything started to settle down a bit, with only Anakin, Padmé, Dormé and the three droids left at Varykino, that Anakin began feeling the pressure of the fact that this happy time with his family had an expiration date. Ahsoka had decided to go visit Rex on Mandalore for a couple of days, to let him know what was happening, and to give Anakin and Padmé some time with Luke and Leia. 

It started when he got a comm from Master Windu. Since the twins were (miraculously) asleep at the same time, Anakin was able to step away to an empty room to take the comm.

“Skywalker,” he said. “We have lost contact with Senator Chuchi, who was sent as a diplomat on behalf of the Republic to negotiate terms of their surrender and our troops withdrawal. The Republic has maintained a presence there since the Battle of Sullust. Since Naboo is in the same region, and you are familiar with the Senator, we are tasking you to go to Sullust and regain contact with Senator Chuchi. If at all possible, those negotiations need to continue. We don’t have any troops in the area, other than the ones already on Sullust, so you’ll be on your own for this one.”

Anakin crossed his arms. He didn’t want to leave right now. His children were barely three months old and his wife needed him. 

As if sensing Anakin’s reluctance, Master Windu’s blue holographic form glared at him. “As a Jedi, we expect this mission to be your first priority.”

“Is there really no one else, Master?” 

“No. The war with the Separatists may be over, but that doesn’t mean that every Separatist planet is willing to give up so easily. We are still spread thinly, and as this is an extremely time sensitive mission, you are the best person for the job.” He gave him a look. “This is why we do not allow attachments, Skywalker. A Jedi should not place any one individual or family above the rest of the galaxy.”

Anakin scowled. “I understand. I’ll leave immediately.”

“We have Master Secura and her troops coming in as reinforcements, but she is tied up with a conflict on Felucia right now, and it is crucial that Senator Chuchi is rescued.” 

With that, Master Windu ended the call.

Anakin sank down into a chair in the office, and put his head in his hands. How was he supposed to tell Padmé that he had to leave so soon? He knew that she would understand that it was his duty, and that almost made it worse.

The joy that he’d been feeling only minutes ago faded into anger and confusion. How could he be a Jedi, now? All he wanted was to be with his family, but that was no longer an option for him. He couldn’t be the kind of Jedi that the Council wanted him to be. He didn’t even think that he wanted to be, anymore. 

“Anakin.”

His head whipped around, looking to see where the voice was coming from, but seeing only the empty office.

“Anakin.” This time, he realized that he recognized the voice.

“Master Qui-Gon?” Anakin asked haltingly, not really believing it.

There was no response. 

Maybe the lack of sleep was making him go crazy. He shook his head.

“Anakin.”

“What do you want?” Anakin snapped, hoping this wasn’t an exhaustion fueled hallucination.

“Want? I don’t want anything. I’m here to talk,” came Qui-Gon’s voice, as calm and serene as Anakin remembered. 

“Talk about what?”

“Your anger at the Jedi.”

“You can’t tell me that you think that what they’re doing is right.”

“No, I can’t. But I can tell you that your anger isn’t going to help anyone. Yourself least of all.” He paused. “You’re conflicted. All you’ve ever wanted was to be a great Jedi, but now you don’t know what you want.”

“How can I be a part of an Order that would do this?” he asked, pained. “How can I pretend to be one of them for the next… fifteen? Twenty? Twenty five years?”

“There is more than one way to be a Jedi, Anakin.” Qui-Gon’s disembodied voice chuckled. “Look at me. I may have been a powerful and well respected Jedi, but they never offered me a position on the Council. And if they would have, I would have turned them down. I often found myself at odds with them. And look at Jedi Vos. He is far from a typical Jedi, but he is a Jedi nonetheless. And look at you. You have never been an ordinary Jedi, and yet you are one of the best.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Anakin asked. He’d forgotten how cryptic Qui-Gon could be. 

“I’m saying that the Council wants you to be a Jedi, fine. Be a Jedi, Anakin, as you always have been. Do what you know to be right, follow what the Force is telling you, not what the Council is telling you. If there is to be any hope for the Jedi, they must see that what I am telling you is true, and they will only see that if you show them.”

Anakin bowed his head. “Why is this up to me?”

“Because you are the Chosen One. You must bring balance to the Force.”

Anakin growled in frustration. “Didn’t I already do that when I destroyed the Sith?”

“Don’t you remember Mortis? Balance is about more than merely destroying the darkside. It is about holding them both, the dark and the light, in balance. The Sith Lord was right about one thing, Anakin. There is more to the Force than the Jedi could ever imagine. The Sith, too, for that matter.”

“What do you mean, Master?”

There was no response. 

\--

It turns out when Master Windu said that Anakin would be on his own for this mission, he really meant on his own. The Republic troops still on Sullust were halfway across the planet, defending the main Republic garrison from an attack from the Sullustan forces, when he landed just outside of the Sullustan capital of Pinyumb. 

“I’m sorry, General Skywalker,” Dav, the clone Commander in charge of the garrison said over comm. “The Sullustans have us surrounded. Tanks, destroyer droids, and way more men than we have.”

“I understand,” Anakin replied as he landed his starfighter in a small clearing in a wooded area not far from Pinyumb. “Keep the garrison defended, and their troops occupied, but don’t try and break their blockade just yet. Hopefully their attention will be on you and not on the Senator.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What do you know about Senator Chuchi’s disappearance?” he asked, still seated in the cockpit of his fighter.

“We know that there are two disagreeing factions here on Sullust. One that wants to rejoin the Republic, and one that does not. While the Prime Minister is in favor of rejoining, we think that Senator Chuchi was kidnapped by someone in the opposing faction. Possibly before even making contact with the Prime Minister, to make it look like the Republic never intended on negotiating.”

Anakin sighed. “Great. So not only do they think we went back on our word, wherever Chuchi is being held, it’s probably not in any official capacity.”

“Probably not, sir.”

“That’ll make it more difficult to find her,” Anakin said, contemplating. “Wait. If the Prime Minister is in support of rejoining the Republic, why are his troops blockading our garrison?”

“We think that the opposition party has launched a coup and taken control from the Prime Minister.”

Anakin sighed again. “This just keeps getting better and better. Commander, send me any blueprints you have of the capitol building, as well as a list of known high ranking officials who oppose the Republic.”

“Will do, sir.”

“Skywalker, out.”

Anakin opened the hatch of the cockpit and climbed down. “Artoo, I’m going to need you with me for this one.”

Artoo trilled and beeped in reply. He grinned. “Don’t worry. I think the hardest part of this one will be freeing the Prime Minister. After that, it’ll be a cinch.”

Artoo beeped skeptically, but lowered himself down from the fighter anyways.

The trek into the capital wasn’t a long one, but it gave Anakin time to look through the documents that Dav had sent to his datapad. 

As it turned out, the leader of the Republic opposition party was in charge of the Sullustan Ministry of Justice, which oversaw all prisons. That would make it easy for Senator Chuchi to be hidden in the high security prison on the other side of the city, most likely under a fake name, to hide who they were holding.

“We just need to break into the main capitol building so you can connect to their prisoner database. Hopefully by narrowing down by intake date we will be able to figure out where Senator Chuchi is,” he told Artoo.

Artoo beeped, causing Anakin to chuckle. “It’ll be a breeze, Artoo. We’ll be back on Naboo in no time.” He felt a pang as he thought of his family on Naboo. He checked his chrono. The kids were probably napping right now. Would Padmé be able to get them to sleep at the same time? Neither of them had mastered the art of rocking both of them in their arms, yet, and the twins would only go down for a nap for the two of them. 

A questioning trill from Artoo drew him out of his thoughts. 

“I’m fine,” Anakin assured him. “We just need to get into the capitol. Once we’re inside, I’ll find the Prime Minister, and you find a computer terminal to figure out the Senator’s location.”

\--

As it turned out, getting into the capitol building was the easy part. Using the blueprints, he’d found a ventilation shaft that had an opening on the second floor of the backside of the building. It was a little tight around his shoulders, but it was far from the first time he’d crawled through ventilation shafts. 

The Prime Minister was indeed being held in his apartments within the capitol building, guarded by at least thirty Sullustan guards, around fifteen battle droids, and two super battle droids. And that was just what Anakin could see through the vent.

Not the hardest odds he’d had ever faced, but in such an enclosed area, it would be hard to destroy the enemy combatants and protect the Prime Minister.

Thankfully, the vent he was looking out of was positioned right above where the Prime Minister was seated at his desk. 

He shimmied a little past the vent so he could kick it loose, and then pushed himself gracefully out of the vent and onto the floor, onto the Prime Minister’s desk.

The troops in the room turned around at the sound of his thud onto the desk, and swung their blasters around to face him. He reached for his lightsaber and ignited it, the bright blue of his blade stark against the dark interior of the apartments. 

“Put down your weapons. I am Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, here on behalf of the Republic to free the Prime Minister.”

All at once, they started firing at him. 

“Prime Minister, get down!” he shouted, using the Force to knock him out of his seat. “Get under the desk!”

He easily deflected the first round of bolts volleyed at him, before jumping and flipping into the air and off the desk, swinging his saber as he came down, decapitating three of the battle droids. 

Anakin grinned as the blaster bolts came flying at him, and he deflected each one, slipping easily into his master’s preferred form of Soresu.

He continued to work outwards, destroying the droids one by one and incapacitating the Sullustan guards by either destroying their blasters or using the Force to throw them across the room. 

He’d almost forgotten how easy it was to slip into the heat of battle, at one with the Force, the only thing he was aware of was his saber and his goal.

He slashed downwards at the remaining super battle droid at the same time as he shoved a guard away. 

It didn’t take long before the room was strewn with unconscious guards and droid parts.

Using the Force, he pulled the last guard standing towards him, slashing through the guard’s blaster as he did so. “Take me to the one in charge,” he ordered with a growl.

The guard spoke rapidly in Sullustese. 

The Prime Minister climbed out from under his desk and spoke to Anakin rapidly. Unfortunately, Anakin didn’t speak a word of Sullustese. Many species, including Sullustans, could’t speak Basic, but thankfully, these two seemed to understand what he was saying. 

He shook his head. “Do you speak Huttese?” he asked.

The Prime Minister shook his head, looking offended at the mere sound of the language, while the guard nodded rapidly.

“Yes! I speak Huttese.”

“Great. What did the Prime Minister say?” Anakin reached out and grabbed the guard by his collar. “And don’t lie to me.”

The guard looked nervously between the Prime Minister, Anakin, and the door. “He said that there will be more troops on the way. That his loyalists are locked in the parliamentary chambers.”

“Well,” Anakin asked, “Are there more troops coming?”

The guard nodded, and Anakin sighed. “Of course. Tell the Prime Minister to follow me.”

The guard relayed his request before turning back to Anakin. “What about me? What are you going to do with me?”

Anakin rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you.”

“Why?”

“Because I need you to translate.”

He motioned for the guard to head out first, keeping the Prime Minister behind him. 

\--

The rest of the mission went smoothly. Anakin lost himself in the adrenaline of fighting his way down to the parliamentary chambers, liberating the Prime Minister’s troops, retaking the capitol building, and capturing the Minister of Justice who was also in the parliamentary chambers. Hours of combat faded into each other as he focused only on the task at hand.

After that, it was just a matter of meeting up with Artoo, who had found a record of a female prisoner of an unlisted species processed around the time Chuchi went missing. 

Since the Prime Minister was once again in charge, they were able to walk into the prison and were escorted to the cell of the prisoner they were interested in. 

“Master Skywalker,” Senator Chuchi breathed out in relief, scrambling up off the cell floor. “I wasn’t even sure if anyone was aware that I was missing!”

Anakin gave her a quick grin. “We knew. Don’t worry, Senator. Sullust is back in the hands of the Prime Minister, and your negotiations can resume.”

He motioned to the guard to open the cell.

“Are you okay? Were you treated well?”

She grimaced slightly. “I can’t say the food was very good, but otherwise it wasn’t too terrible. They mostly forgot about me, I think.”

Anakin nodded. “They’ve been distracted with their coup and with the Republic garrison.”

“Well, I can’t thank you enough for not only rescuing me, but for overthrowing the Minister of Justice. It is imperative that the Sullust rejoins the Republic. Such an alliance would allow us better deals with the SoroSuub Corporation.”

“I’m glad to help.”

And to his surprise, he was. All in all, it’d been a very cut and dry mission. He’d fought some battle droids, saved a Senator, and restored a planet’s democracy. The kind of mission that reminded him what being a Jedi was supposed to be like.

But, even though by the time he got back to Naboo, it’d be less than three days, he still missed his family. 

“Senator, I am needed elsewhere, so I will be leaving Sullust very soon, but I have gotten word that Master Secura is on her way now from Felucia,” he said as they walked out of the prison.

“I understand. Thank you again, for your help.”

\--

Padmé smiled as she sat in the grass outside of Varykino. She, Dormé, and Ahsoka sat in a circle so that the twins could play in between them on a blanket she’d laid out, belly crawling in between the three of them and soaking in the sunshine.

“Leia, Leia,” she said in a sing-songy voice. “What are you doing, sweetheart?” She was scooting her way over to her, slowed down by the stuffed nerf whose leg she had clutched in one hand. 

Padmé laughed as she struggled to make it over to her. “You’re going to have to set that down, you know.”

“She seems pretty determined,” Ahsoka said with a grin. Padmé was so thankful that she and Dormé were both here with her. Ahsoka had arrived back yesterday from Mandalore after Anakin told her that he was going on a mission. Padmé wasn’t sure how she would’ve taken care of the twins these last two days without them. And Ahsoka was so good with the twins. She loved to gently toss them into the air, and play games to make them laugh.

After a few more moments of struggle, Leia finally made it over to her, and put her hands on her knees, looking up at her mother beseechingly. “Oh, okay,” she acquiesced, reaching down to pick her up and set her on her lap. 

She glanced over to where Luke was sitting in front of Dormé, who was trying to read her one of those thick paged children’s books that had lots of animals with little circles of textures for them to touch. Unfortunately, Luke seemed more interested in trying to eat the book than touching it. 

“Luke,” Ahsoka called, trying to get his attention. “Watch this!” 

Dormé turned Luke around so he and Leia could both watch as Ahsoka levitated their wooden Aurebesh alphabet blocks in the air, making them spin and dance around mid-air. 

Luke’s eyes were wide with wonder as he watched. Padmé glanced down to see that Leia’s eyes were similarly wide, reaching out with one hand. Ahsoka raised her eyebrows as one of the blocks floated loose from its formation, bobbing unsteadily through the air until it landed on the ground in front of Padmé and Leia. 

“Whoa,” Ahsoka said, impressed. “Good job, Princess!”

Padmé smiled down at Leia, and tried to press down the worry she felt at any reminder of her children’s Force sensitivity. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her children to be trained in it; she just knew that if Luke and Leia were anything like her and Anakin, they would already be magnets for trouble without adding Force sensitivity. It seemed like a lot to place onto such young children.

“What age do Jedi younglings usually start doing things like that?” Dormé asked.

“Oh, it depends,” Ahsoka replied, setting the blocks down into a pyramid formation in front of Luke. “On whether or not they’re raised in the Temple around other Force-users, and on how strong in the Force they are.” She looked between the two children consideringly. “I guess with a father as strong as Anakin, and having the two of us around them all the time, this is a pretty reasonable age. Maybe a little young. Usually parents start reaching out to the Jedi about their child’s strange powers before the kid turns two or three.”

Padmé smoothed down Leia’s already thick brown hair that seemed to want to stick out in all directions. “I can’t imagine raising a child with these kinds of powers unexpectedly. It must be scary.”

Ahsoka nodded. “It’s the main way that the Jedi get children. All hospitals within the Republic suggest that children have their midichlorian count tested at birth, but it’s not a requirement. Most parents reach out when they don’t know what to do, when they worry that they won’t be able to provide the best life for their child anymore.”

That made sense, Padmé supposed. She couldn’t imagine any parent who had wanted their pregnancy to be willing to give up their child right after birth, but when faced with mysterious powers, and a promise of a better life for their child, Padmé could understand what a difficult decision it must be, especially if the Order applied any sort of pressure on those parents. She was only glad that she would have Anakin and Ahsoka in her life to help her raise a Force-sensitive child without the Order.

As Luke lunged forward after the pyramid of blocks, Padmé’s comm went off. She quickly accepted the call, holding her holorecorder at face level after glancing down at the datapad she’d brought out with her to see that it was from Anakin. 

His miniature blue form appeared before her. He appeared to be sitting in his starfighter. 

“Anakin, is everything okay? Are you headed home?”

He grinned and nodded. “Everything’s fine,” he assured her. “I saved the Senator, saved the day, saved a democracy. All in a day’s work,” he said with a cocky grin. 

Ahsoka rolled her eyes from behind his holographic form, causing Padmé to chuckle. 

“Well, we’re glad to hear it,” she replied. She angled the holorecorder down slightly so he could see Leia seated in her lap. 

Anakin brightened at the sight of her. “Are you guys outside?”

“All five of us,” Padmé confirmed. “It’s such a beautiful day out. Hurry home, and you could join us for dinner.”

Anakin nodded. “Will do. I just wanted to give you a quick call before I made the jump to hyperspace. I love you.”

“Love you,” she echoed, and his blue form blinked away. 

Padmé smiled to herself as Leia chewed on the block that she’d stolen from Ahsoka. Anakin was safe, and he was coming home. They still had nine more months to spend together, and as she sat out on the lawn, it almost felt like all the time in the world.

\--

Those nine months passed much like the previous three. In a blur of feedings and nap times and diaper changes. Visits from her family, taking the children out onto the lake, trying to convince them to eat their first solid veggies. 

But Anakin could even blink, a year had passed on Naboo, and he and Padmé were already packing their bags to leave. 

“I’m not ready to go,” Padmé said, pausing her packing.

Anakin looked up from where he’d been packing his own bag and saw tears in her eyes. “Me either.”

“It just doesn’t feel long enough,” she continued. “I can’t believe that the twins are already almost a year old.”

He nodded. While their year on Naboo had been wonderful, the last month or so had started to feel more and more suffocating as they both realized that their time as a whole family was almost up. Every moment began to feel like it had to be something special, something that they could both hold on to for later.

And now their year was almost up. The twins would turn one year old in three days, and Anakin would have to run the blood test to test their midichlorian counts. 

They would have to run the test while still on Naboo, and Anakin would fly back in his Jedi starfighter with one child and Artoo, while Padmé and the other child flew back on the Naboo star skipper with Dormé, Ahsoka, and Threepio. 

The official story, Anakin had been informed by Obi-Wan, was that he was undercover somewhere in the Mid-Rim. After his “mission” was over, the Council would supposedly hear from Senator Amidala about a Force-sensitive child on Naboo with no parents, and would send Anakin to investigate. 

“Let’s take a break from packing,” Anakin suggested. “I’m sure that Ahsoka could use a break from watching them.”

Padmé nodded, wiping her eyes, trying to pull herself together. His heart clenched at seeing her so distraught. He knew that what was happening to them wasn’t his fault, but it still felt like she would have been better off with someone else. He knew better than to say that, though, instead pulling her into his arms and holding her.

After a moment, Padmé stepped back, nodding to herself. “Okay, yes, let’s go,” she said determinedly. 

They walked out of their bedroom, across the second floor living space, and into the children’s playroom. 

Ahsoka was seated cross-legged on the floor with Leia in her lap as Luke sat near her, playing with a plastic ball that had lots of buttons on it, each one producing either a sound or a colored light. 

“Hey, look who it is!” Ahsoka told Leia, turning around as they approached. “It’s mom and dad!” Leia babbled happily in response, and made a reaching motion towards Anakin. 

He grinned and swooped down to pick her up. He kissed her on the forehead, causing her to scrunch up her face and giggle. She babbled some more nonsense at him, and he nodded seriously. “I’m happy to see you, too,” he said with a grin. 

Leia looked so much like Padmé already, with her big, dark brown eyes, and her dark brown hair that still wasn’t quite long enough to do anything but tie the longest hairs into a single ponytail sticking straight out on top of her head. Anakin called it her antenna, much to Padmé’s chagrin. 

“Are you guys done packing?” Ahsoka asked.

“Hardly. But we needed a break, and figured you might, as well,” Padmé replied as she sat down next to Luke, smoothing out her skirt as she did so. 

Ahsoka smiled and reached over to tickle Luke, “Need a break? From these two bundles of energy?” she joked. “Never!” She ruffled Luke’s hair, causing him to laugh some more. “This guy just got changed, but she,” pointing at Leia, “will probably need it soon.” 

Padmé nodded, and Ahsoka got up to leave. “Bye kiddos!” she said, waving at both of them. “I’m going to go do some packing myself,” she told Anakin as she walked out. 

“Ma!” Luke exclaimed, suddenly, reaching out his arms towards Padmé. She grinned as she picked him up and set him on her lap. Both of the twins had started babbling more and more lately. It was hard to tell what “words” were actual words and which were just coincidences. 

Anakin sat down next to Padmé and Luke, Leia still in his arms. “Have you guys been good for Ahsoka?” he asked them, smiling as they both looked at him, blue eyes and brown, and babbled a response.

“You two are always good, aren’t you?” Padmé said, brushing a kiss to the top of Luke’s head. 

“Is that true? Are you always good?” Anakin asked Leia, bouncing her up and down on one of his legs. She laughed and he glanced over to see Padmé smiling softly at the two of them.

He could tell what she was thinking. If they didn’t have many of these moments left, then they would have to treasure every one.

\--

“And don’t forget to comm us when you reach Coruscant,” Jobal told Padmé, voice thick with emotion. 

Padmé nodded. “I won’t.” She gave her mother another hug. Her mother wrapped her arms tightly around her, and Padmé felt her hands running comforting circles on her back.

“If you ever need anything at all, comm me.” 

Padmé nodded wordlessly. They were all meeting her family Varykino one last time to say goodbye, before they had to leave for Coruscant. 

Ruwee was talking quietly to Anakin while holding Luke in his arms. Sola was saying goodbye to Leia.

The goodbyes lasted several minutes of passing the babies around and hugging. Her parents even pulled Ahsoka and Dormé into the hugging action, much to both of their amusement. 

After her family left, Dormé and Ahsoka made themselves scarce, so Anakin and Padmé could be alone with the children. 

Anakin had the same blood testing equipment that Qui-Gon had tested him with all those years ago, and AZ had the equipment to test it.

Padmé felt like time was moving at half speed as she held Luke, who was being very squirmy in her arms, as Anakin quickly cleaned a spot on Luke’s chubby arm.

“Would you like me to do this, Master Anakin?” AZ asked, hovering next to her. 

Anakin shook his head. “No, I’ve got it.” He carefully pricked Luke’s arm with the needle. 

Luke barely reacted, going still for a moment, before turning to look up at Padmé. She smiled comfortingly at him, bouncing him in her arms. “Good job, Luke!” she cooed at him. “That didn’t hurt at all, did it?”

“Good job, little man,” Anakin agreed, only able to conjure up the barest hint of a smile as ruffled his hair.

Padmé sat Luke back down on the ground on the playmat and picked up Leia. “Your turn, sweetheart.” Leia watched with big eyes as Anakin swabbed her arm and then pricked her with the needle, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“Aww, Princess,” Anakin comforted her, “I’m sorry.” He handed AZ the testing equipment and Padmé let him take her. He gave a pouting Leia a kiss on her nose, before cuddling her into his chest. “I know that hurt, didn’t it?”

Padmé couldn’t help herself but smile at the two of them. Since day one, Leia had had Anakin wrapped around her little finger. 

Luke had crawled back over to her, and tugged at her skirt. “You want up?” she asked him, already bending to do so. 

She took a deep breath, hugging Luke to herself. “AZ, go ahead and analyze the results.”

AZ used his own satellite technology to communicate with the medical equipment in her star skipper to run the results remotely. “Do you want to know the midichlorian counts of each child, or do you just want to know who has the higher count?” AZ asked.

Padmé exchanged a look with Anakin, her heart in her throat. She hugged Luke closer to her, and she could feel tears starting to run down her face. She barely noticed when Anakin stepped over to her, to wrap the arm not holding Leia around her.

“Just which is higher,” Anakin answered quietly.

“The counts are very similar,” AZ began, “But Leia’s midichlorian count is slightly higher.”

Padmé started crying in truth now, turning into Anakin’s arms, still holding Luke, so that she could put her free hand around Leia. 

She could tell that the children were confused. Luke was moving anxiously in her arms, but she couldn’t help it. She had ignored the truth of what was going to happen to her family for a whole year, and now the seemingly far off future was upon them. It seemed too overwhelming for her to comprehend. 

\--

Anakin stepped back after a minute or two when he could tell that the children were getting restless. “Here,” he said quietly, “You take her for a bit. I want to say goodbye to Luke.” Padmé nodded through her tears and let him take Luke with his flesh hand as his mechanical one handed Leia off. Padmé sat down on one of the couches, clutching Leia against her shoulder, murmuring into her ear. 

“Da?” Luke asked, blue eyes peering up at him in concern. Anakin tried to give him a bit of a smile. “Hey there, little man.” Anakin hugged Luke to his chest, and wished that he would be able to remember anything that he was about to say.

“The next time I see you,” he told him, “it won’t be like this. We’ll have to pretend that I’m not your dad, okay?” He leaned Luke back in his arms, so his legs were against his chest, and he could look his son in the eyes. “But guess what? That doesn’t mean that I’m not your dad. I’ll always be your dad. And I’ll always be there for you and your mom, okay?” Luke blinked his blue eyes at him, looking solemn. Anakin could tell that he was picking up on his emotions through the Force. 

He hugged Luke again, smelling the top of his head, taking in the sweet baby scent. 

Padmé was still on the couch with Leia, who was now on Padmé’s knee, as she ran her fingers through Leia’s wispy brown hair. “I’m going to go get Ahsoka,” he told Padmé, who nodded, looking only briefly up at him.

He carried Luke up the stairs to the sitting room where he assumed Ahsoka and Dormé were waiting. As he climbed the steps, he thought about the future. He would return to the Temple with Leia. She would be known from now on as Leia Lars, which was his step-family’s name, but also a not uncommon name on Naboo. Luke would go to 500 Republica with Padmé a day later, and Anakin wouldn’t visit him for at least a month. They wanted to give Luke time so that he could see him as a new person, his mother’s friend and bodyguard, not as his father. 

Ahsoka and Dormé were indeed waiting for him in the living area. “We’re almost ready,” he told them. “Leia and I will be leaving soon.”

He could tell that Dormé had also been crying before he’d come up, and Ahsoka looked as upset as he’d ever seen her.

“I’m sorry, Anakin,” was all she said. Anakin nodded. 

“You two should go down and say goodbye to her.”

He followed them back down the stairs, and took a seat on the couch opposite Padmé. She reluctantly handed Leia off to Dormé, before walking over to Anakin and sitting down next to him.

“I’m not going to be able to teach her how to do her hair,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I won’t be able to brush it for her like my mother always did for me.” Anakin wrapped an arm around her. He knew that the mother-daughter relationship was very important to the Naboo, and he hated that she wouldn’t be able to experience that.

“Ani, I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I don’t know if I can, either.” He looked at Luke. “We have to be strong. For them.”

She nodded tearfully, and reached out a hand to Luke, who grabbed her index finger and immediately brought it to his mouth and started mouthing on it. She gave a short laugh of surprise.

“Master Anakin, if you want to make it to the Jedi Temple before nightfall, you’ll need to leave very soon,” Threepio informed them as he entered the room, Artoo trailing behind him.

He nodded. He looked over at Dormé, who had passed Leia off to Ahsoka at some point. “Could you take him for a second?” She nodded, and strode over to pick up Luke. She looked at the two of them. “We’ll give you two a minute alone.” She ushered Ahsoka and the droids out of the room.

He pulled back so that he could look at Padmé. he knew that they would see each other in a few days, but this felt different. He reached out his flesh hand to her face, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. “We’ll be okay,” he told her as confidently as he could. “This is only temporary. We will be a family again, someday. We’ll all be together.”

She nodded, looking up at him. “You have to help her,” she all but pleaded. “You have to make sure that she has love in her life.”

Anakin nodded. “I will.” 

“If you don’t, she won’t ever want to be a part of our family,” she said, tears starting to fall again. “She’ll be too much like the rest of them.”

He shook his head. “I won’t let that happen.” He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss, tasting the salt from her tears on her lips. He felt her reach out and grab his robes with both hands. He moved his hand from her face down to her waist to move her closer to him, pulling her all but onto his lap. He deepened the kiss, feeling the urgency of their imminent separation, before pulling back, resting his forehead on hers. “I love you, with all my heart,” he whispered. “We will get through this,” he promised her.

“I love you, too,” she whispered back. 

\--

Anakin glanced back to where Leia was strapped into her speeder seat in the back of the speeder on their way to the nearest spaceport, which was where he’d landed his Jedi fighter. About five minutes into the speeder ride, Leia had started crying, and hadn’t stopped since. This was the furthest apart she and Luke had ever been. He reached out in the Force to try and comfort her, to no avail. 

“Oh dear,” Threepio said, “Mistress Leia sounds most unhappy.”

Artoo beeped a response that Anakin could tell was not very polite. He couldn’t help but grin. Threepio was coming along to fly the speeder back to Varykino, and now wasn’t really the time for his helpful commentary.

Thankfully, the flight to the spaceport was not a long one, and Anakin was able to climb out of the speeder and extract Leia from her seat. “Artoo,” he said, as he cradled a still wailing Leia against his shoulder, “go ahead and get the fighter ready for flight. I’m going to try and settle her down. And Threepio, you can go ahead and head back to Varykino.”

“Yes, sir,” said Threepio. “I do hope you and Mistress Leia have a safe flight back to Coruscant.”

Anakin started walking around the nearly empty starport, bouncing Leia in his arms as he walked. “Come on now, Princess,” he said. “Don’t cry. Everything’s okay.” He heard a beep behind him and found Artoo holding out Leia’s pacifier and smiled gratefully at the astromech. “Thanks, Artoo.” 

He gave the pacifier to Leia, which helped a little, but she continued to sniffle around it, tears still streaking her cheeks. 

He sighed. He and Padmé had been so caught up in how they were feeling about the separation that they hadn’t even considered that either of the twins would have such a strong, immediate reaction. 

“If you cry the whole ten hours, neither of us is going to have much fun,” he muttered. “Not much room in a starfighter.”

He closed his eyes, reaching out to touch her bright, fiery presence in the Force. Everything’s okay, he sent her. He continued to send her waves of calming affirmations until she truly settled down and drifted off to sleep. 

By that point, Artoo had the fighter prepped and ready to go, their two bags stored in a compartment under the cockpit, so Anakin was able to climb carefully up the ladder one handed. He maneuvered his way into the seat, Leia’s sleeping head resting on his shoulder. Getting the harness on with her on his shoulder was a bit of a challenge, but he managed it. 

After quickly comming the Temple to let them know he would be arriving with a new Initiate and comming the starport’s communications tower, they lifted off. Anakin reached out and brushed the minds of his wife and his son, saying one last goodbye, before taking off into the atmosphere to engage the fighter’s hyperspace ring.

\--

The sun was setting over the Jedi Temple as Anakin dropped into the atmosphere, the hyperspace ring already disengaged. Leia was asleep again; this time he’d adjusted his seat back so she could sit on his lap and fall asleep leaning back against him. 

Her little antenna of hair brushed his chin when he leaned down to check some of the controls and instruments. 

His little Princess. He’d realized while in hyperspace that he wouldn’t be able to call her that anymore. She wasn’t Leia Skywalker, daughter of Naboo’s favorite Queen any longer. From now on, she was Leia Lars, the daughter of two dead farmers on Naboo. 

He blinked as he looked down at her, sleeping contentedly on his lap. He was approaching the Temple; he couldn’t afford to show emotion now. He had to appease the Council as much as possible if he wanted to remain a Jedi, if he wanted to be able to see his daughter. 

“Jedi Temple traffic, Delta 7B Aethersprite-class 7514Y, landing platform A from the southeast, Temple Precinct.”

He maneuvered the fighter onto the landing platform, and engaged the landing gear. He landed softly enough that Leia didn’t stir, until the cockpit canopy opened with a hiss, and she blinked softly awake. 

He wondered if she would ever fall asleep on his lap like this again.

“Hey now,” he whispered, “go back to sleep.” He stayed seated for another moment, waiting for her to drift back off. She’d only been napping for fifteen minutes or so, and would be cranky if she didn’t sleep longer. 

“I’ll always be your dad,” he whispered to her, suddenly feeling the need to promise her. “I’ll always love you. I’ll always be there for you. You’ll never be alone, Leia,” he swore, as she drifted back off to sleep. 

Once Anakin was certain she was asleep once more, he carefully maneuvered her into the crook of his arm and climbed one handed out of the cockpit and down the ladder onto the landing platform. 

The sun, now directly behind the Temple, radiated bright red and deep purple hues. Anakin looked down at his sleeping daughter. He wondered if she would remember any of this year, deep down somewhere, if she would remember having a family who loved her earnestly and completely and unconditionally. 

Waiting for Anakin on the platform was Master Yoda, Master Windu and a Mirialan Jedi he didn’t recognize.

In that moment, Anakin was a heartbeat away from turning around and running back to his starfighter, and taking his daughter as far away as he could. 

But he didn’t. He kept walking. Didn’t Leia deserve a stable, happy childhood? The Jedi might not be a normal upbringing, but he knew that younglings raised in the Temple had fond memories of their childhoods. And didn’t she deserve to be trained like he had been? She was powerful, both of his children were, he could feel it, and he knew that Obi-Wan and Ahoka had felt it, too. 

And most of all, didn’t she deserve the chance, no matter how far off, to be apart of a family again someday?

He kept walking.

“So, a youngling, you have found?” asked Master Yoda. 

His words stuck in his throat. It was a moment before he could answer. “Yes, Master. An orphan, from Naboo. Strong in the Force.”

“And her name, what is?”

“Leia. Leia Lars,” he said, managing to keep his voice steady. 

“You have done well, Skywalker,” Master Windu said. “Jedi Seminaria will take her down to the crèche.”

The other Jedi, Jedi Seminaria, stepped forward to take Leia from him, to take his daughter away from his arms. He glanced down at Leia, still wearing the flowery patterned play outfit that Padmé had dressed her in at the beginning of the day, still dozing peacefully. 

He passed her over, and she stirred slightly as she left his arms. “I’ll take her down to the crèche,” Jedi Seminaria murmured, bowing to the three of them. The other two Masters bowed slightly to her, and Anakin remembered to follow suit. 

He looked past Master Yoda and Master Windu, watching as Jedi Seminaria walked into the Temple from the landing platform, the reds and purples in the sky around them fading up into the deep indigo of nightfall. 

“You have done well,” Master Windu said after a long moment. “We weren’t totally sure if you would go through with it.”

Anakin didn’t say anything.

“For the best, this is. Only here in the Temple will her full potential, Leia be able to achieve. Even better if her brother was also here, it would be.”

Anakin shook his head. “The Jedi are not the only way.”

“We are the path of the lightside,” Master Windu snapped. “Master Yoda is correct. If anyone as powerful in the Force as Leia Lars is, is going to fulfill her full potential, then the Temple is the best place for her.”

Anakin decided it was better not to argue. Suddenly, he felt too exhausted to say anything, so he just nodded. 

He noticed Obi-Wan walking towards them. “Master Kenobi,” Master Windu greeted him. “Did you need anything?”

Obi-Wan bowed. “No, Masters. I am only here to greet Anakin.”

With that, the other two Masters bowed, and headed back into the Temple.

Obi-Wan looked at him and sighed once the others were further away. “I’m so sorry, Anakin.”

Anakin shook his head, crossing his arms as he started walking the way Obi-Wan had come from. “I feel like I am failing. As a father, for abandoning both of my children. As a Jedi, for loving them and even having a family at all.”

“You’re not abandoning them. None of this was your choice. And you’ll still be in their lives; it’s not as if you’re dropping them off on some backwards planet and running off. You’re trying to do what’s best for them, in very difficult circumstances.” 

Anakin nodded. Obi-Wan was right. He wasn’t abandoning them, and he wasn’t giving up on them. They would all be together, someday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this chapter was a monster to keep track of, so hopefully everything made sense and worked both from a story perspective and an emotional one. 
> 
> Because I want to keep this story as on track as possible, I obviously skimmed over most of their on Naboo. However, if you guys have any prompts for some outtakes for this year, either let me know in the comments, or on my tumblr here! 
> 
> Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
> 
> Chapter edited 3/29/2020 to change Anakin not being able to see Padmé or Luke for a month, to just Luke, as there's no reason he couldn't see her.


	5. Chapter  4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life goes on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ: I know I said that I was going to have each chapter cover one year, but it became apparent that that reeeeaaally slowed down the pace of the story and was super boring. So, instead, this chapter covers years 1-6 from the POVs of Anakin, Padmé, and Ahsoka. The next chapter will slow back down and we will get the kids’ POVs. Also, I edited a portion of the previous chapter that didn’t make sense, specifically Anakin not being able to see Padmé for a month. He can visit her during their first month back, just not Luke.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

The next few years passed in a blur for Anakin. He visited Leia in the Temple crèche as often as he could when he was on Coruscant, though usually only for short visits. She got bigger every day, and every day he saw more of himself and Padmé in her. 

Anakin spent most of his nights on Coruscant in Padmé’s apartment in 500 Republica. That was the only time the two of them could be truly together. When he came over during the day, after that first month, when Luke was around, he had to pretend to be just a friend and protector. Although more people knew about his relationship with Padmé now, in many ways he often felt like it was more secret than ever. 

When he did see Luke, which was usually only a few times a year, he was always amazed at how big he’d gotten, how many steps he could take, how many words were in his vocabulary. He heard a lot from Padmé, of course, just like he told her about Leia, and from Ahsoka, but it was different to see.

Like Leia, Luke was also a clear mix of the two of them, just in a different way. Leia was a firecracker, loud and assertive, always the first to raise her hand to answer a question and the first to speak out for a friend. Luke was a dreamer, kind and thoughtful, and adventurous. He had his own blonde hair and blue eyes, but Padmé’s rounder face and chin. 

Anakin had to tamp down his jealousy when Ahsoka started Luke’s Force training. He knew that Padmé was missing out on much more than this with Leia, so he said nothing. But it did hurt that he wasn’t able to help train his son. 

When the twins turned five, and Leia aged out of the crèche, Anakin got more involved in youngling training. The main reason was that it meant he got to see more of Leia, of course, but it was also a reason to keep him on Coruscant. Plus, with the war well and truly over, and him having neither position on the Council or Padawan, teaching gave him something to do. Obi-Wan started teaching a class or two, as well, along with his Council duties and the diplomatic missions he so loved. 

To his own surprise, Anakin enjoyed teaching the younglings, even the classes without his daughter. It brought him joy to help the children with their katas, to impress them with his saber work, to watch them handle a practice saber the first time.

From the first time she got her hands on a practice saber when she turned five, Leia threw herself into her lightsaber training with her usual verve and enthusiasm, like he had when he was young. His classes with her were his favorite, of course. Watching her intense, serious expression as she listened to what he said, her smile as she got comfortable with a new stance, and just watching her interact with her friends, made those classes the most enjoyable for Anakin. 

He was pleased to see that, from a young age, Leia made friends quickly, where he had struggled when he’d first come to the Temple. She mostly had one or two close friends, mainly a human boy brought to the temple when he was about three, Ezra Bridger, and a Pantoran girl named Ira Masi, who’d been in the Temple for about at long as Leia. 

His relationship with Leia during those few years was a comfort to him, even if it was a shadow of what he wanted it to be. When she had been in the crèche, he had been able to visit her with some regularity, spending small bits of time playing with her and making sure she was fitting in well. When she was about four, Padmé and Dormé taught him some simple Nubian hairstyles to do on her. She would sit on the floor of the crèche chatting away, or doing simple Force exercises while he worked on the twists and knots that characterized Nubian hair. 

Once she moved into one of the bunks, however, he was really only able to see her in classes or on rare occasions around the Temple. 

She always smiled when she saw him, and went out of her way to greet him. She, like several other initiates, came to him with many of their problems. Since he was one of the youngest of the Knights and Masters teaching their classes, they saw him as a friendly figure. She even continued to come to him for help with her hair from time to time, especially when she was old enough that the Jedi encouraged initiates to take an interest in their native culture. 

One time, she asked him how he knew so much about Nubian hair.

“I don’t really,” he’d tried to brush it off with a laugh. “You know I only know these four styles.”

“No, but really,” she’d pushed, still sitting very still and straight on the floor of his small Temple quarters as he carefully tied the first pieces of hair into place. “How do you know anything about Nubian hair? Are you from Naboo?”

“I’m from Tatooine. It’s a long way from Naboo,” he had said ruefully. “But, I spent some time on Naboo towards the end of my apprenticeship,” he’d said, trying to come up with an explanation on the fly. “I was the bodyguard to a Senator for a time, and we got bored. So she taught me how to do hair.”

Thankfully, Leia had seemed to accept this answer.

It was one of his favorite things to do, to sit with Leia and listen to her talk about her day, her friends, her training, as he brushed her hair and tied it back. Leia’s favorite style, the style he did most often, was a fairly simple one, the style Padmé had worn when she revealed her identity as Queen. It was sturdy and practical, and as Leia’s hair got longer and longer, looked even better. 

Occasionally, she would bring Ira and Ezra with her, and they would all sit together on the floor of his quarters, and he would regale them with tales from the Clone Wars, or from his time as Obi-Wan’s apprentice. On a few occasions, shy Ira worked up enough courage to ask him to do her hair as well, “even though I am not from Naboo.” 

He often wondered if Leia knew, or suspected that it was his intention to take her on as his Padawan in a few years. He knew from experience that future apprenticeships was a favorite topic among initiates, and he had always expressed an interest in her. He didn’t say anything, mostly because he didn’t want her friends to become jealous, or worried about their own futures, but he did wonder.

He and Padmé both counted the days until the twins turned ten, and he could start taking Leia with him when he accompanied Padmé on official Senate business, but that was still over three years away.

\--

For Padmé, Luke’s first few years were full of joy and heartache. There was an idea, on Naboo, that everything good in life was connected to pain in one’s past, and Padmé felt that acutely during this time. 

Everytime something good happened in Luke’s life, from a laugh to his first steps, it caused a pang in her heart, wondering what Leia was doing at that moment.

Anakin told her as much as he could, of course, but he was not around Leia all the time the way that she was with Luke. He could tell her when she was learning to walk, but wasn’t there for her first steps. He could tell her the new words she’d learned, but not when she’d learned them. He could tell her how her initiate training was going, but not how she was feeling, how she liked the Jedi, and life in the Temple. 

She tried not to let it spoil her happy moments with Luke, as much as it threatened to. Because there were happy moments. Luke was just the sweetest boy, and she loved every day with him.

From the time they’d arrived back on Coruscant, she’d started taking him to Senate sessions with her, seated on her lap as she listened and voted, or seated on Dormé’s lap next to her when she had the floor. 

Those first few months had been some of the most difficult of her life. Between trying to catch up on Senate business that she had missed while on Naboo, to dealing with Luke, who had a difficult transition to a life without his father and twin, to just missing her husband, Padmé had sometimes felt like life was trying to drag her down.

But she had gotten through it, thanks to Dormé and Ahsoka. They already had meant so much to her, but it didn’t take long before she wasn’t sure how she had ever survived without them.

Having Anakin around, even for short bits of time, was also a comfort. In some ways, it made her life more complicated. When he came over when Luke was around, she had to pretend that he was just a friend, which of course she was used to, but not here in her apartment, the place they thought of as their home together. They only truly got to be together when he came over after Luke was asleep in his nursery, and Anakin would sneak over to spend the night, only to have to leave early in the morning to get back to the Temple.

But however complicated, she needed him in her life. Having him near her, even as infrequent as it was, was comforting. Sleeping in his arms, listening to him talk about Leia, or his latest mission, she treasured it all. She loved hearing him talk about Leia, seeing his eyes light up as he described what she’d done that day, or the things she was learning. It made her feel closer to them both. 

When the twins were a bit older, she and Dormé even taught Anakin how to do hair. She had sat on the floor in front of one of the sofas one night as Dormé walked him through how to brush it out and coax it into a few easy, practical Nubian styles. 

One of the greatest blessings during those years turned out to be Artoo. Although the astromech spent little time in the Temple, Anakin taught some simple mechanical classes to the younglings, and Artoo managed to record some video and some holos of Leia. Seeing her daughter at all, even in the grainy blue form of Artoo’s recording technology, was more wonderful than she could say. 

As much as not having Leia with her hurt, she tried not to let that affect how she parented Luke. They visited Naboo a handful of times every year, to visit her family and to meet with the Queen. She taught him about her culture and religion, she brought him to most of the Senate sessions, especially before he started school, and read to him before bed every night. 

She loved to watch Ahsoka help him with simple Force exercises, like stacking blocks or navigating a room blindfolded. He was so cute when he concentrated, screwing his eyes shut and taking a breath before starting. 

He loved accompanying her to work, which usually just meant the Senate, but by the time he turned five, she started bringing him along on diplomatic missions where she served as a Senate emissary, which Bail was fond of having her do. The Queen of Naboo also started increasing Naboo’s involvement in galactic outreach by having her meet with leaders whose people needed aid, so they spent plenty of time travelling off-world.

On the more dangerous of these missions, Anakin even came along, as official Jedi protection. One time the Council tried to send someone else, but that didn’t last long. They worked well together, after all, and Luke trusted Anakin. 

By the time she enrolled Luke into a very heavily vetted academy on Coruscant, he was training with a practice saber, had visited several planets, and had very strong opinions about speeders. 

According to the culture of Naboo that she had tried to instill into him, Luke tried not to pry into the secrets that so obviously swirled around their little family. She knew he wondered about who his father was, why he had the Force, why he trained in secret, and why he wasn’t being trained in the Temple. It was hard for him, she knew, because as much as it was her business, it was his business, too.

She could only answer the latter question, which he’d asked one day as Ahsoka recounted to them some of the history of the Jedi. She wrapped an arm around him, reaching around to tickle his side and said, “Because I couldn’t bear to let you go, of course!” causing him to laugh and wriggle away.

He was still so young, at six, and Padmé was determined to shield him from as much of the misery surrounding their family for as long as possible. 

\--

The first few years of Luke’s life were, for Ahsoka, defined by contrasting idyllic joy and uncertainty. She had an apartment near the rest of Padmé’s staff, a real job, and a steady income for the first time in her life. A purpose that she chose as much as it chose her. 

For the first couple of months, she’d felt like she was still trying to sort out her place in her new life. Even after living with them for a year on Naboo, that had been with Anakin. Now, it was just her, Padmé, Dormé, and Luke. Being back on Coruscant at all, for an extended period of time, so close to the Temple, made her reflective on her time as a Jedi. More than usual. 

After a few months of being back, she did something that she knew Anakin would disapprove of, but that she felt like she had to. She asked for Padmé’s help in getting visiting rights for a certain prisoner in one of Coruscant’s high security prisons. 

It had been surreal to see Barriss again that first time. She’d looked paler than Ahsoka remembered. And sadder. They sat at one of the tables in the visiting area, and talked in soft tones about the past.

Ahsoka had so many conflicting feelings about Barriss. Anger, on account of the violence she’d caused. Confusion, that her friend had set her up to take the fall. And sorrow, because on some level, Ahsoka knew that Barriss had been right. Not in her actions, but her words had been true. The Jedi had been clouded, confused, drifting from their purpose. 

That first visit, Barriss had asked her if she’d come for an apology. 

“Would you give it?” Ahsoka’d asked, arms crossed.

Barriss had paused. “Not to the Jedi. But to you, yes. And to the clones and workers I killed. I let my anger trick me into believing that my actions were justified because I knew I was right.” She looked at Ahsoka defiantly. “Because I was right. Surely you can see that now.”

“I left the Order,” Ahsoka had told her.

Barriss looked at her, eyes widened. “You did what?”

“After my trial, they asked me to come back. Said that it was my great Trial. But I knew that Anakin was the only one that had had my back, that had trusted me. If they didn’t trust me, how could I trust them? So, I left.”

Barriss looked at her curiously. “So did you come here to tell me that I was right, after all? Is that it?”

Ahsoka shook her head. “What you did was still wrong, Barriss. You killed people, most of them totally innocent of any crimes of the Jedi. You resorted to violence first.” She sighed. “I guess I came here because... I never really understood you when we were both Padawans. You always seemed so calm and put together, so sure of yourself. The perfect Padawan. And again, in that first moment when you confessed… I didn’t understand you. But, I think I do now.” 

She’d stood up to leave. “I guess that’s all I wanted to say.”

Barriss sat up straight. “Are you going to come back?”

“Do you want me to?” 

She paused, then nodded once.

So she had. Although Padmé knew who she’d been visiting that first time, not even she knew how often she visited the prison, usually once a week, if she was on planet. 

Their visits weren’t always pleasant. Sometimes Barriss made Ahsoka question why she even bothered. She knew just what to say to set her on edge, put her on the defensive.

Other days, Barriss was more sad than angry, wanting to reminisce about their time in the Temple, or to talk about Ahsoka’s new life. On those days, Ahsoka could see the deep sorrow she felt over her actions. 

On Barriss’ best days, they talked about Jedi philosophy civilly, they talked about current events, Ahsoka told her about Luke’s training. As the months went by, the bad visits waned.

Being able to spend an hour or two with Barriss every week made her life more interesting. It gave her a secret of her own to guard. She wondered if growing up on the front lines made her need that kind of excitement, any kind of excitement. 

It wasn’t as if she didn’t like her job. She did; she loved it. Luke was such a cute, sweet little kid. There just wasn’t much for her to do, as a teacher, when he was so young.

But as he got older, four and five, Ahsoka was able to throw herself more fully into his training. She tried to recall the exercises that she’d done as a child, and she tried to make up new games for him to practice his Force abilities on. 

He was very powerful, which maybe wasn’t a surprise, considering his father, but still, Force sensitivity wasn’t always inherited. Luke seemed to enjoy his training, but he was also impatient with some of their lessons. He very much preferred their more practical lessons where they actually used practice sabers, or used the Force in a more visible way, rather than just talking about it, or using the Force in more subtle ways. 

The week when he was five and Ahsoka taught him how to construct a mental wall was one of the most exhausting of her life.

But, overall, they got along very well, and she was happy to have Luke as a student. He was bright, caring, and adventurous. He was always eager to hear her stories from the Clone Wars or from the Temple, and he was very good at taking the Jedi philosophies to heart. 

When Luke was old enough to start learning about Jedi philosophy, Ahsoka hadn’t been sure what to teach him. She left the Jedi; she didn’t technically hold to their rigid standards. But at the same time, she knew that her beliefs were still very much aligned with the Jedi.

In the end, she talked with Padmé, about what she wanted him to learn, and to Anakin, and to Barriss, for their insights into philosophy.

The main thing that she changed, even from what Barriss and Anakin suggested, was at Padmé’s request. 

“I don’t want Luke to feel guilty for his emotions,” she’d said. “When I first reconnected with Anakin, he always felt so ashamed for feeling anger, or fear, or even love.”

“The Jedi teach that those emotions lead to the darkside,” Ahsoka had countered, not agreeing or disagreeing.

“Maybe if you are controlled by them,” she’d said, “but it is a normal part of life to feel those things. I want Luke to know how to feel those emotions in a healthy way.”

Ahsoka had agreed, because she did think that Padmé was right. She’d even said those things to Anakin, herself, back before the twins were born. She was just wrestling with herself, and her beliefs. 

Part of her wrestling came from Barriss. Over the last five years, she’d come to place a lot of importance on her friendship with her. At some point, their weekly visits had become the most important part of her week. Seeing Barriss, talking to her about everything and nothing. Even on the bad days, when Barriss was feeling bitter about her past, Ahsoka knew she wouldn’t trade them for anything. 

But she wondered if her feelings, whatever they were, were clouding her judgement. She knew who Barriss was, but she’d forgiven her. She believed that she was a different person. Was she right, or were the Jedi correct when they said that emotion clouds judgement?

When Barriss got put on parole for good behavior, Ahsoka offered to let her move in without hesitation. 

“You trust me that much?”

“Well, you don’t have any more nanodroids, do you?” she asked wryly.

It had taken a lot of explaining on her part, to Anakin and to Padmé. 

Anakin didn’t trust Barriss, and didn't want her around Luke. He hadn’t forgiven her for the bombing, or for setting up Ahsoka. But, eventually, after much arguing, he agreed to trust her judgement. 

Padmé was much more understanding. She had been much more caught off guard that Ahsoka had been visiting her so often for the last five years, but she also trusted in Ahsoka’s judgement.

“I believe in second chances, Ahsoka. And I trust that you know when to give them.” 

Not only had Padmé understood, she’d also hired Barriss onto her staff. The Queen wanted to continue to expand the role of Padmé’s office, and that meant a larger staff, particularly for offworld meetings and errands, which Barriss was allowed to do as a part of her job.

Barriss was still struggling with her relationship to the teachings of the Jedi, so Luke’s training was still largely left up to Ahsoka, but she did seem to thrive in the work Padmé’s office had been doing with the worlds affected by the war. 

They fell into an easy balance. Their days spent split between Padmé’s apartment and the Senate, and their evenings spent in the living room of their now shared apartment, eating and watching holodramas. 

It was a life that Ahsoka would never have dreamed of having, eight years ago. It was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to hear what y'all are thinking, so let me know in the comments or on my tumblr. Or, if you have any prompt for outtakes during the twins first 6 years!


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Padmé and Luke have an interesting encounter on Naboo.

Luke glanced up at his mother as she spoke, shifting from one foot to the other. He usually wasn’t bothered by listening to his mother’s speeches; he’d done it enough times, but it was a warm day on Naboo, and he was wearing a deep blue formal overcoat over his white tunic, and he was starting to feel a little stuffy. He felt an itch at the back of his neck that he tried to ignore.

Usually, when his mother gave speeches at events like this, Luke either watched from the audience, or if Ahsoka and Barriss were there, from the side of the stage, but since they had stayed on Coruscant, and the speech was for the dedication of an orphanage being named in his mother’s honor, he was standing next to her. 

They were standing in the large courtyard of the Royal Amidala Orphanage, on a small platform that had been erected for the occasion, with tables in front of them full of wealthy Naboo donors as well as the children who lived there. On the edges of the courtyard were stands of carnival games that Luke personally thought seemed much more interesting than a dedication speech.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before there was applause, signalling the end of the speech, and his mom glanced down at him with a smile. He grinned back up at her, taking her hand as she led them off the stage. 

This was one of the few off-planet trips he and his mother had ever taken with so little accompaniment, and he was enjoying having her to himself. Only Captain Typho was here, watching from the edge of the courtyard. Dormé had come with them to Naboo, but was on the other side of the planet, visiting her family. And obviously, Naboo wasn’t dangerous, so Jedi Skywalker didn’t have to accompany them, either. So it was just the two of them.

“Can I go play now?” Luke asked quietly as they sat at their table, near the front of the stage. 

She raised her eyebrows, smiling. “Why don’t you eat first?” She nodded to a table full of orphan children. “The other children haven’t started playing yet.”

Luke sighed. “Okay.” He felt that itch again. It felt like something was brushing up against him. He glanced around. Nothing. 

He turned his attention back to the table, where food had just been sat in front of him. It was shaak steak, which he liked. He looked at the other people at their table as he cut his steak into small bites like his mother had taught him. There was a girl, who he knew was the Princess of Theed, Tallaylah, and a man who Luke thought was a governor or something, as well as another man and woman he didn’t know at all.

“So, Luke,” the woman he didn’t recognize addressed him, “are you planning on joining the Legislative Youth Program in a couple of years like your mother did?” 

Luke shook his head, waiting to swallow his bite before answering. “No, I don’t want to be a politician.” He glanced at his mother, who nodded reassuringly at him. “I want to be a pilot!” And a Jedi, but that he didn’t say. 

The woman smiled in a way that made Luke think she didn’t believe him. “That’s very nice.”

The Princess beamed at him. “Theed has one of the best starports and starfleets in the galaxy. If you want to be a pilot, then this is the place to do it.” 

He grinned at her. “I love the starport!” he enthused. His mom had taken him loads of times to look at the starfighters. “We know a Jedi who flew in one of those fighters,” he continued. 

The Governor (or whoever he was) nodded knowingly. “Skywalker, is that right?” He smiled when Luke nodded. “Yes, he’s a bit of a legend here, as I’m sure you know. He and Kenobi, and of course Master Jinn.”

Luke nodded solemnly. He’d heard the story a few times, from Jedi Skywalker, his mother, and in a museum here in Theed. 

“And of course,” the governor continued, “That’s not even mentioning your mother. Rarely has there been such a hero on Naboo.” 

Luke glanced over to her with a proud grin, and she waved off the compliment. “You’re kind to say so, Governor. I was just doing my best.”

She looked over at him. “Luke, I think the other kids are going to play now; you can run along too, if you want.”

Luke grinned to himself. His mom hated people talking about her time as Queen, he knew. He wasn’t about to argue, though. “Thanks, Mom!” he said, shoving his chair back to hop down and run off to one of the shooting games, the back of his neck itching. 

He was in the middle of his turn with the fake blaster, shooting the targets with small pellets, when the itch got more intense. He absently handed the blaster to the girl behind him in line. 

He could almost hear Ahsoka’s voice in his head. “Trust your instincts, Luke. Trust the Force; let it guide you.”

There was someone here, like him. He could sense it. It was different from what he felt around Ahsoka or Barriss or Jedi Skywalker, smaller, maybe, but it was similar. 

His gaze turned to the back of the courtyard, to a nearly empty table. There was just one kid there, a small girl, a bit younger than him, with bright red hair. 

She was who he was sensing, he could tell. 

He made his way around the edges of the tables, until he reached the table she was at. She was sitting in her chair, arms crossed, looking down. 

Luke wasn’t sure what to say. His mom didn’t have a lot of rules, but rule number one was don’t tell people that he had the Force. He knew that the training he was doing with Ahsoka, was in her own words, “not completely allowed.” 

He walked up to her, and placed his hand on the table near hers, to get her attention.

“Hi, I’m Luke,” he said hesitantly. “What’s your name?”

The girl glanced up at him and shot him a glare. “Go away.”

“Your name is Go Away?” he shot with a grin. 

She gave him a look. “My name is Mara. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Why not?”

“Because, your mother is not a nice person!” 

He crossed his arms. “What are you talking about? She’s a great person!”

“Mother and Father do not like her!” she insisted. 

“Well, why not?” he asked again. He knew that there were people out there who didn’t like his mom, most of them terrible, in his own opinion, but he didn’t say that. His mom had told him to be careful when talking about parents today. “What did she ever do to them?” 

Mara huffed, “I’m not going to tell you.”

The presence he’d felt was Mara, he was sure of it, but he didn’t think he’d sensed anything other than just her presence; she hadn’t been reaching out to him. Maybe she didn’t even know she had the Force. 

He glanced over to where he knew Captain Typho was standing, somewhere on the edge of the courtyard, between him and his mother. Did this require adult assistance? Probably. But probably not enough that he couldn’t go talk to his mother himself. 

“Okay, um, I’m going to go,” Luke said awkwardly, before turning and walking back to the table at the front. He tried not to run, but walked quickly up to his mother, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. 

\--

Padmé was having a very interesting conversation with the table on the subject of several systems who had never rejoined the Republic, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned, and saw her son standing, looking worried.

“Can I talk to you?” he asked quickly. He did the hand signal for ‘important’, and Padmé knew that it must be. Luke was very good at using his hand signals at the right times.

She nodded seriously. “Of course, sweetheart.” She turned back to the table. “Excuse me,” she apologized quickly, before turning back to take Luke’s hand and guided him to a quiet place near the stage. She crouched down despite her long skirt and heeled shoes so she was at eye level. Luke held out his hands so she could hold them for balance, which she did, shooting him a grateful smile, despite her worry.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked. 

Luke looked over her shoulder, before turning back to her. “There’s a girl here that has the Force and she doesn’t like you!” he blurted out all in a rush. 

Her eyes widened. “The Force? Are you sure?”

He nodded vigorously. “I felt a presence, when you were giving your speech, and I can still feel it! It’s her! She has the Force!”

Padmé nodded, taking a breath. Important, yes, but probably not imminently dangerous, not if it was just a small child. “Okay, I trust you. What else did you say? She doesn’t like me?”

“She said her parents don’t like you, but most of the people who don’t like you are bad people, but I didn’t say that, because I was sensitive, like you said,” he informed her. 

She smiled in amusement. “Yes, that’s very sensitive of you, Luke. But not all people that don’t like me are bad,” she said.

Luke rolled his eyes. “I said most, Mom!”

“Yes, you did. Okay, so, why are you telling me all this? Why is it important? Is this girl dangerous, do you think?” she asked, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

He shook his head. “No, she’s really little. But, if she has the Force, she could be a Jedi, right? She wouldn’t have to be in an orphanage!”

Padmé softened, and sighed. “Oh, Luke.” She gave him a smile. “It’s very thoughtful of you to think of such a thing, but how do we know that she would want to go? Or that she is strong enough that the Jedi would accept her? And some of the children here can still be reunited with their parents; we wouldn't want to take her away from them.”

Luke looked at her with his blue eyes that look just like Anakin’s. “But we should find out, right?” he pleaded. “Because who wouldn’t want to be a Jedi?”

Padmé stood up and smoothed Luke’s hair. She knew that he wanted to be a Jedi more than anything, more than flying. The three of them- herself, Ahsoka, and Barriss- had always instilled in him that there was more to the Force than being a Jedi, but he didn’t have the same experiences with the them that they’d had. To him, they were still heroes. 

“Alright,” she agreed reluctantly, “I will make some inquiries after the picnic, okay?” 

He nodded, grinning. 

She smiled back at him. “Why don’t you go back to playing, okay? Or come and eat some more at the table.”

Luke glanced back towards the tables and shook his head. “No, I’m going to sit with Mara. She’s all by herself,” he explained, and Padmé felt her heart melt. In these moments he reminded her so much of Anakin when she’d first met him on Tatooine, going out of his way to help strangers.

“Alright, that’s very nice of you,” she said approvingly. “Well, if you are going to talk to her, maybe I should, too,” she considered. 

Luke didn’t look convinced. “She really didn’t seem to like you,” he warned.

Padmé gave him a bemused look. “She’s a little girl, Luke, I think it’ll be fine. Lead me to her!” she said cheerfully, taking hold of his hand. He was starting to get to the age where he chafed at her holding his hand, so she was sure to take every opportunity.

“Okay,” he said, unconvinced, leading her towards the back of the courtyard.

She smiled and shook her head. Never a dull moment with that one. She caught Captain Typho’s eye and gave the signal for ‘okay’ as they passed.

Luke led her to a table that did indeed have only one occupant, a small girl, about four or five, with bright red curly hair and a very cross expression. 

She looked a little nervous as they approached, and Padmé’s heart went out to her.

“Mom, this is Mara,” Luke introduced her, pulling out a chair to sit next to her. “Mara, this is my mom.”

Padmé smiled at the girl. “Hello,” she greeted her softly, once again crouching to the ground to be at eye level, this time holding onto Luke’s chair for balance. “You can call me Padmé,” she said.

Mara looked distressed, moving back in her chair away from them. She glanced over at Luke and glared. “Why did you tell her?” she hissed. 

“Hey, it’s okay, Mara, you’re not in trouble,” Padmé tried to soothe, “Luke just told me that he made a friend and I wanted to say hello.” 

Mara looked skeptically at the both of them. “Hello,” she said stiffly.

Padmé smiled again. She really was adorable, half of her curls tied in the back of her head, a ruffly turquoise dress on, and a serious expression on her face. She wished she had some way to test her Force sensitivity. Not that she didn’t trust Luke; she just didn’t know if Luke being able to sense Mara meant that she would be strong enough for the Jedi to take her, or if he was just that in tune with the Force. 

She needed more information.

\--

After the picnic was over, Padmé spoke to one of the orphanage’s matrons about Mara. 

The woman immediately looked worried upon the mention of her name. “Oh dear, she didn’t say anything improper, did she?”

Padmé shook her head, and wondered if the matron knew about Mara’s distrust in her specifically, or if the little girl just had a chip on her shoulder in general. “No, not at all,” she said smoothly. “She sat by herself the whole picnic and I justwanted to check and make sure everything was okay.”

The matron didn’t look like she entirely believed her, but nodded anyways. “Oh, she’s a troubled one, that’s for sure,” she agreed with a sigh. “Her parents, the Amers, well, they were about to be arrested and charged as,” she lowered her voice, “traitors a few months ago for their collusion with Palpatine and Nute Gunray.”

“After all this time?” She knew that a few of the noble families here in Theed had been implicated in the crimes of her predecessor King Veruna, as well as Palpatine’s crimes more recently, but she hadn’t realised that there were investigations still ongoing. “It’s been seven years!”

The matron shrugged sadly. “The corruption ran much deeper than we’d like to think.” That, Padmé thought to herself, was something she knew better than most. “Mara’s parents, well, when they realized the authorities were closing in,” she sighed, continuing on. “They ran. Left her at the house. The servants had all been let go, so the authorities found her in their big home all alone.”

Padmé shook her head in disbelief. It did explain a few things though, like why Mara was so withdrawn, and why her parents hadn’t liked her. “That’s terrible. That poor girl.”

The matron nodded. “Indeed. She’s been very angry the whole time she’s been here. Understandably, of course, but still. She’s had more than a few outbursts since coming here.”

Padmé nodded. She wasn’t really sure how to ask about Force sensitivity without giving away how she suspected, but she needed to ask if Mara had ever been tested. So, she just asked. “Has Mara’s midichlorian count ever been tested?”

The matron’s eyes widened. “Midichlorian? Why, I have no idea!” She looked curiously at Padmé. “Why?”

Padmé grimaced internally. “Well, you know I’ve spent a lot of time around the Jedi,” she started haltingly, and the matron nodded in hesitant agreement, “I am very good at recognizing, um, those qualities in a person. Jedi qualities.” Not one of her best lies, that’s for sure.

The matron raised an eyebrow. “Well, I suppose I could go check Mara’s medical records.” She looked consideringly. “I do think the Jedi would be good for her, with their focus on internal peace and meditation. Mara could use that in her life, that’s for certain.”

Padmé smiled gratefully. “Thank you. I appreciate your help.” It seemed like her reputation combined with the general lack of knowledge about the Force would help her in this situation. 

\--

The matron wasn’t long in checking the records. Mara hadn’t had her midichlorian count tested.

“Can I speak with her?” Padmé asked. “I have contacts within the Temple that could test her, and take her to Coruscant if she is Force sensitive, but I want to make sure that that is something that she wants, first.”

The matron crossed her arms. “I can certainly bring her out to talk to you, but she’s only five. Hardly old enough to make those kinds of decisions.”

“I understand that, but if she’s happy here, with you, on Naboo, I wouldn’t want to uproot her. Being a Jedi is a totally different life, especially for a girl from the nobility.”

“Alright, if you say so, my lady.”

“Thank you.” Padmé believed that children were smarter than most people gave them credit for; while certainly five was too young to make life changing decisions, that didn’t mean she shouldn’t be consulted. 

She waited in one of the waiting chairs in the foyer of the orphanage for only a few minutes before Mara was brought out, still looking very apprehensive. 

“Can I have a minute alone with her?” she asked the matron, remaining seated so as to not seem too intimidating. 

The matron nodded and left the room, leaving them alone. Padmé shot Mara what she hoped was a comforting smile as she motioned her closer. She shuffled over to Padmé’s chair, looking down at the ground. 

“Mara, I wanted to talk to you about something very important,” she began. “I know you don’t like me, because of your parents, and I understand that, but I hope you will listen. Can you do that?”

Mara nodded, and lifted her eyes from the floor to meet her gaze. 

Padmé nodded. “Wonderful. Mara, I was wondering if you would like to have your midichlorian count tested. It’s a test that would tell us if you could be a Jedi. Do you know what a Jedi is?”

She nodded, eyes big. 

“Good! If your count came back as high enough, then, if you wanted, the Jedi would take you back to Coruscant to be a Jedi. Now, I know it may sound very exciting to be a Jedi, but it would mean dressing the way they told you, training really hard, not ever falling in love, not having a family, and having to always do what you’re told.”

“I could do it,” Mara insisted.

Padmé raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure you could,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t trying to say you couldn’t; I’m trying to tell you that it would be very different from here. Being a Jedi is not something you can do for fun.”

Mara shook her head. “I want to do it,” she said. She glanced down at the floor. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Padmé looked at her in concern. “Is something bad happening to you here? Is someone hurting you, or being mean?”

She shook her head again. “My mommy and daddy left me,” she said. “What if they come back?”

Now Padmé was confused. “What do you mean?”

Mara looked back up at her, green eyes filled with tears she was too stubborn to cry. “If I’m here, they could come back for me!” she all but wailed. 

“Oh,” Padmé exhaled, understanding. “You don’t want them to come back.”

She shook her head vigorously. “They left me,” she sniffled.

“Well, Mara, while it’s true that the Jedi wouldn’t let your parents take you away, neither will the people here. I think you know that your parents are in a lot of trouble. You wouldn’t be going with them either way.”

Mara looked at her distrustfully. Padmé sighed. She was too young to connect her parent’s dislike of her to the reason that they were in trouble, so it was understandable that she had simply absorbed what they’d told her. 

“Are you lying?”

Padmé felt taken aback. “Lying about what?”

“Could I really be a Jedi?” she clarified, giving her a sideways look. “For really?”

Padmé sighed. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be this little girl. Her parents, who she seemed to harbor ill feelings about anyway, abandoned her, leaving her alone and confused and mistrustful. She thought back to what the matron had told her: even the servants had left. All the adults in her life had abandoned her. And now here Padmé was, a woman Mara had been taught to fear, telling her that she could be a hero from the stories.

Padmé tilted her head and smiled sadly. “Well, I can’t promise you that you will be a Jedi. But, we can test you, and see, okay? That I can promise you.” Though, she wasn’t too worried about getting the girl’s hopes up. She trusted Luke’s judgement.

“Okay,” she said, still seeming unconvinced. “Can we do it now?”

“It’ll be a couple of days,” she said with a bit of a laugh. “I have to talk to someone at the Temple, on Coruscant. Then they’ll come to Naboo and test you, how does that sound?”

“Good,” she said, finally with a hint of a smile.

Padmé smiled back. “Good. Now, maybe keep this to yourself, okay? Don’t tell your friends? They might feel bad.”

Mara nodded. “Okay. I won’t tell.”

\--

After her talk with Mara and the matron, Padmé left the orphanage to where Luke was waiting in the now empty courtyard with Captain Typho. They flew back to her parent’s home in the speeder she used while on Naboo. 

“Are you two staying in this evening?” Gregar asked as he dropped them off in front of the house. 

“Yes, I think we could use a quiet evening in,” Padmé said as she helped Luke out of the speeder. “Have a nice evening off,” she told him with a grin, and he gave her a quick salute before flying off. 

“Luke, I need to make a call about Mara, so why don’t you go find your grandparents,” she told him as they walked up the steps from the street and into her family’s home. 

“Are you going to call Jedi Skywalker?” Luke asked excitedly. “Tell him I said hi! Tell him I’m going to fly a Nubian starfighter just like he did!”

She raised her eyebrows. “Not anytime soon you’re not,” she said with a wry smile. “I’ll tell him you say hi, though.”

“Mom!” Luke complained. “Didn’t you hear what the Princess said?” he asked as he followed her inside. “She said that I could learn to fly in the starfighters.”

“She didn’t mean right now you could,” she countered with a laugh. “She just meant that when you’re old enough, Theed is a good place to do it.” She turned around and gave Luke a stern look. “When you’re old enough.” 

“Alright,” he said glumly, slinking off down the hallway to find her mother and father. 

She made her way to her childhood room that she shared with Luke while they stayed in Theed, and used her holorecorder to make a call. 

“Padmé,” he greeted simply as his blue figure shimmered into being. If he wasn’t alone he would have opened with ‘Senator Amidala’. 

“Ani,” she said with a smile. “I’ve missed you.”

He smiled sadly back at her. “I’ve missed you, too. Is everything alright?” he asked. “I wasn’t expecting your call until tomorrow.”

She nodded. “Everything is fine,” she said, knowing how much he worried about them both, even while they were on Naboo. “I was calling you about a girl Luke and I met this afternoon,” she said, getting straight to business, knowing that Luke would probably barge in before long, and they would talk again tomorrow, since Sola was taking the kids to market for a couple of hours.

“Isn’t he a little young?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Padmé gave him an exasperated look, causing him to break into a grin. “Luke said he felt a presence in the Force at the orphanage dedication we were at this afternoon. He said it was this little girl.”

“He thinks she has the Force?” he asked in surprise.

She nodded. “He seems very sure. The girl, Mara, is very young, and I think that despite how we feel about the Council, she would benefit from being in the Temple. Especially since you’re there, and can look out for her.” She told him the whole story, about Luke sensing her, about her parents, and about their talk.

Anakin crossed his arms and considered. “Well, if you think it would be a good place for her, I can come and test her. Obi-Wan will probably come, too,” he said. “He’s still off-duty while his arm is healing, and is starting to get ansty just sitting around the Temple,” Anakin continued with a grin. 

“That would be nice. Luke will be happy to see you both.” She smiled at her husband’s blue form. “He was bragging about knowing you at today’s picnic,” she informed him.

“Oh yeah?” he said eagerly. 

She nodded. 

His smile lasted for only a moment. “Well, I’m supposed to teach a class for a few of the older Padawans, so I’d better go. They haven’t really learned the patience thing yet.”

“And you have?” she teased.

“I’m patient!” he protested, and shook his head with a slight grin. “If everything works out, Obi-Wan and I can leave tomorrow morning and be on Naboo by nightfall, okay?”

She nodded. “Thank you, Ani.”

“Anything, for you. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

\--

Anakin walked a bit more quickly than necessary out of the Theed public starport, eager to see his wife and son.

“So, when are we going to test the girl Padmé told you about?” Obi-Wan asked, walking next to him, his left arm in a sling. He’d been shot on his last mission, protecting Vice Chancellor Mothma during a visit to her home planet of Chandrila. Apparently, a few Separatist and Palpatine sympathizers continued to hold grudges against the newly united Republic government.

“Tomorrow,” Anakin replied. “It’s too late tonight.”

“Well, I can see it’s too late tonight. I was just wondering what the itinerary looked like for this trip.”

“If you hadn’t been reading the whole hyperspace jump,” Anakin started good-naturedly.

“I was reading up on the girl’s family,” Obi-Wan said defensively. “And it’s not as if you weren’t equally distracted.”

Anakin ducked his head. It was true; Padmé and Luke had been on Naboo for almost a month, and it was difficult to think of anything else. “My point stands. The plan is to go to the orphanage tomorrow morning. They’re expecting us around oh-nine-hundred Naboo time. Then, if the kid ends up coming with us, we’ll get her things, make sure she gets some food, and leave.”

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. “That quick?”

Anakin shot him a look. “Not my choice.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry, Anakin.”

“I know.” He didn’t really want to talk about that right now. He was happy. It was a good day. He was on Naboo, going to see Padmé and Luke. He focused on that. 

Captain Typho met them at the starport and flew them to the Naberrie home. 

It took all of his restraint not to leap out of the speeder and dash into the house, but he didn’t. He thanked Gregar for driving them, and for watching out for Padmé and Luke, as he did every time he saw the man, and walked up the stairs to the house with Obi-Wan, calmly and with all the dignity a Jedi should possess. 

He couldn’t help his grin when he saw Padmé open the door. Her own smile blinded him, as usual, stealing his breath away. Since Luke’s birth, Padmé had moved away from elaborate headpieces and tended to prefer slightly less formal looks like the one she had now, with most of her hair in a fairly complicated looking bun at the back of her head and several twists looping below it, hanging below her ears and at the nape of her neck. 

She was beautiful, as always. Anakin had started appreciating the intricacies of her hair since he’d started doing Leia’s a few years ago. 

“Anakin, Obi-Wan,” she greeted them warmly. “I’m so glad you made it here with no trouble,” she continued, ushering them in. “Thank you for coming on such a short notice.”

“No trouble at all,” Anakin said, still grinning, as he stepped inside. He could see the reason for her formality immediately, with Luke standing right behind her in the entryway, bouncing eagerly on the balls of his feet. 

“Jedi Skywalker, Master Kenobi,” he greeted formally, bowing at the waist. He grinned at them as he straightened. 

They both bowed in return, garnering an even larger grin from the boy. Force, he was getting so big. His blond hair was longer than the last time he’d seen him; he must have convinced Padmé to let him grow it out a bit. The ends were just brushing the tops of his ears. 

“How’s it going, little man?” Anakin asked, using the same nickname he’d given him at birth.

“Great! Before we left, Ahsoka said that soon, I could start coming with her and Barriss on their missions!” he told them excitedly. 

“That’s great, Luke,” Anakin enthused, though privately he thought that he would have a talk with Ahsoka about this; Luke was still very young, and he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about Barriss.

He and Obi-Wan were the only two Jedi that knew about Luke’s training, since they’d decided that since they were basically the only ones he interacted with, it wouldn’t hurt to have an exception to the rule. 

“Very impressive,” agreed Obi-Wan with a smile. 

Padmé placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Let’s not keep them trapped in the entryway, okay? Why don’t we go into the parlor?” She turned to them. “Mom and Dad will be happy to see you both.”

\--

Mara sat on her bunk, swinging her legs off the edge. The other girls she shared her room with were gone, off at school, while Mara waited for the Jedi.

She played nervously with the ends of her hair. Her parents didn’t really like the Jedi either, but she’d seen enough holodramas about them to know that they were wrong. The Jedi were the good guys, she knew. They’d saved Naboo, and were always protecting people.

Matron Tilla had told her that the Jedi were coming at 09:00, but she wasn’t really sure what time it was now. There were toys in the room that she could play with, but she didn’t feel like playing with toys. So she sat and waited, until eventually, a whole group of people came into the room. Her eyes widened as they all filed in. They’d really come; the Senator hadn’t been lying.

Matron Tilla, of course, the Senator, Luke, and two men in brown robes. Jedi. 

Mara hopped off the bed, hands behind her back. She glanced nervously at the floor.

“Mara, this is Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi,” Matron Tilla introduced. “They’re here to take a blood sample, okay?” 

She nodded. The taller Jedi, Master Skywalker, smiled at her. “Are you ready for this, kid?”

She nodded again. Luke smiled encouragingly at her. 

“Do you want Luke and Senator Amidala to wait outside?” Master Kenobi asked. 

Mara considered, before shaking her head. She still didn’t really like Senator Amidala, but Luke seemed okay.

“Alright then,” Master Skywalker said, kneeling down on the ground next to her. He looked her in the eye. “I’m going to clean your arm, and it’ll be cold for a second, and then you’ll feel a pinch, okay?”

Mara nodded, and clenched her teeth. She was a big girl, she could take it. 

She watched as Master Skywalker wiped a spot on her upper arm. It was cold. She swallowed as she saw the device. He pressed it quickly against her arm, and she winced as she felt the sharp pinch. 

“All done,” he said quickly. He smiled at her. “Good job.” As he stood, he handed the little device to Master Kenobi, who plugged it into a datapad. 

“The Jedi finally have a program that can read the results immediately, instead of needing a higher powered computer,” Master Skywalker told Senator Amidala. 

“Do the Jedi test younglings so often?” she asked.

“Not really,” replied Master Kenobi, “Usually it’s done in the hospital right after birth, but done often enough that they finally realized that sometimes more immediate results are needed, rather than taking the blood sampler to a computer to read the results.”

The datapad pinged. Master Kenobi raised an eyebrow at the results. Mara rubbed the spot on her arm where the sample had been taken. She swallowed nervously.

“8,000,” he read off. “More than enough to be accepted into the Temple.”

Mara sighed in relief. She was going to be a Jedi, and she wouldn't have to be moved around ever again.

Master Skywalker grinned at her. “You can come to Coruscant, and train to be a Jedi,” he told her. “Is that what you want?”

She nodded eagerly. Of course it was!

Luke echoed her thoughts. “Why wouldn’t she? The Jedi are amazing!”

Senator Amidala placed a hand on his shoulder. “Because it’s a very big change and an even bigger commitment.” She looked at Mara. “Are you sure that’s still what you want?”

“Yes, I want to be a Jedi,” she insisted. She wasn’t going to let them leave her behind.

“Senator Amidala is correct,” Master Kenobi said, “We’d be happy to take you, but we’d also understand if you’d rather not.”

Mara huffed impatiently. “I said I want to go!” 

“If you do choose to come with us, you’ll probably need to change your name,” Master Skywalker warned. He glanced at the Matron Tilla and Senator Amidala. “It’s standard practice for children with well known parents.”

“It’s probably especially prudent in this case,” Master Kenobi agreed. 

“Change my name?” Mara asked dubiously. 

“Just your last name,” Master Skywalker reassured her. 

Mara nodded in understanding. They didn’t want her parents to find her. Which is good, because she didn’t want that, either. They didn’t want her. But the Jedi did. 

\--

As Anakin and Obi-Wan exited their ship and stepped onto the Jedi landing platform, Mara trailing behind them, his mind flashed back six years, to when he was bringing a different little girl from Naboo to the Temple.

This was not the same, he reassured himself. Mara wanted to come; she didn’t have a family that wanted her. 

He turned around to check that she was still doing okay as they walked into the Temple doors. She was only a step or two behind them, clutching a small bag that just carried a change of clothes. Mara hadn’t seemed bothered having to leave her clothes and toys behind at the orphanage. 

She hadn’t talked much on the trip back to Naboo, but Anakin had attributed that more to her personality and what she’d gone through than fear. He didn’t sense fear from her. Maybe some trepidation, certainly a lot of mistrust, but she was just a child, several years younger than he’d been his first time in the Temple. 

“How are you feeling, Mara?” Obi-Wan asked gently, as they continued to walk through the Temple.

“Fine,” she replied almost absently, taking in the enormousness of the Temple.

“Do you need to rest before we meet with the Council?” Anakin asked in concern.

She shook her head, focusing her gaze on them. “I’m okay,” she insisted.

Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged looks. “Okay, if you say so,” he said. She was handling everything remarkably well for someone so young. She had just turned five, but was small for her age. 

The Council didn’t meet with every child that was brought to them, but Anakin thought this meeting was probably more due to his involvement than anything else.

\--

Mara watched the Jedi Masters as they spoke to Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi. They were all staring at her. She could feel it. And not just like she’d felt at one of her parents’ galas when people would look at them. She could feel it.

One of the Jedi, a Togruta, interrupted whoever was speaking. “Mara, are we making you uncomfortable?” she asked kindly, with a very imperious voice.

“You’re all staring at me,” she said accusingly, crossing her arms. “With your minds.”

The Togruta Jedi looked amused. “You’re right; we are. We are trying to see what kind of person you are.”

Mara glanced around nervously. She didn’t want them to think that she was a bad person. She thought that maybe her parents were bad people. That’s what people said, anyways. 

“You could ask me,” she suggested.

Master Yoda- the only Master she knew the name of- chuckled off to her left and Mara turned to face him. “Right you are, young one.” He looked at her curiously. “Scared, are you?”

Mara paused. Was she scared? “No,” she said slowly. “I’m nervous,” she admitted.

“Trust us, you do not.”

Mara shifted where she stood. She wasn’t really sure what he meant by that.

“She’s five,” Master Skywalker snapped. “She’s been through a lot.” 

“We recognize that,” said the dark skinned human man next to Master Yoda. 

The man fixed his gaze on her. “Has anyone told you what it means to be a Jedi?”

Mara nodded. “I have to give up all my clothes, not have parents, train really hard, do what I am told, and change my name,” she listed off. “My last name,” she amended. “Because of my parents.”

He nodded. “Those certainly are some of the sacrifices, yes. But being a Jedi is about helping others, even when it is hard for you. It is about putting the whole galaxy before yourself, and fully dedicating yourself to this Order. That is why we must make those sacrifices. Is that what you want?”

She nodded. 

“She seems very determined,” remarked one of the masters with a very tall head. Mara wasn’t sure what his species was called. 

The other masters nodded. A dark skinned humanoid woman of another species Mara didn’t recognize, with a scaled head and pale tendrils instead of hair, spoke up. “What is your full name, Mara?” she asked.

“Mara Amer,” she recited dutifully. 

“Hmm,” Master Yoda hummed, looking at her thoughtfully. “No longer Mara Amer, you are. Green your eyes are, hmm? Green like mine,” he said with a grin, and Mara smiled hesitantly back. 

“Mara Jade,” he pronounced. “A strong Jedi, you will be, Mara Jade.”

She nodded. Mara Jade. She liked it.

“Thank you for finding her, and bringing her to the Temple, Jedi Skywalker, Master Kenobi,” intoned a Kel Dor Jedi. Mara recognized the mask they had to wear.

“Skywalker, go ahead and escort Mara down to the initiate bunks. Master Seminaria will find a place for her,” the dark skinned man instructed. He looked to Master Kenobi. “Obi-Wan, we have a few Council matters that still need to be attended to.”

Mara felt Master Skywalker place a hand on her shoulder and she glanced up at him. He gave her a quick grin, before ushering her out of the Council chambers.

\--

Leia was sitting with Ezra and Ira in one of the lounges between the initiate bunks as Leia worked on doing Ira’s hair while she sat on the floor in front of the sofa Leia and Ezra were on. Ezra and Ira were chattering in Pantoran, as they’d both decided to learn when they’d started with languages two years ago. Leia had chosen to learn Naboo, even though she knew it wasn’t spoken very often. She figured she could learn Pantoran later, so instead she focused on doing Ira’s hair, rather than on what they were saying. She still wasn’t very good at doing any of the Nubian styles on herself, so she was practicing.

As she tied off the last twist, she sensed a familiar presence coming in their direction and turned around. “Jedi Skywalker!” she exclaimed happily as he came around the corner with a little girl holding his hand.

He grinned when he saw her, and hastened down the hall toward them, releasing the girl’s hand. “Leia, Ezra, Ira,” he greeted them, reaching out to tussle the top of her hair. She didn’t mind because he hadn’t been here to do it, so it was just in a simple tail at the back of her head. He glanced down at Ira’s head. “Very pretty Ira,” he complimented. “And great job, Leia,” he said, smiling proudly at her. 

She beamed up at him. 

Anakin turned to the redheaded girl next to him. “Guys, this is Mara Jade,” he introduced. “She’s new to the Temple.” 

Mara waved timidly at them, and Leia smiled at her. “I’m Leia,” she greeted. “This is Ezra and Ira. We’re in clan Morak.”

“You’ll have a clan, too, Mara,” Anakin explained. “When initiates are old enough, like you probably are, they get assigned to a clan to do training exercises with, lessons, and to bunk with.”

“It’s great!” Ezra enthused. “We’ve started dueling exercises!” 

“Well, why don’t you three tell her all about it, okay? I’m going to go find Master Seminaria.” He glanced down at Mara and gently maneuvered her in their direction. 

“Stay here with them, okay?” 

She nodded, and he smiled encouragingly at her. “Why don’t you tell them about Naboo,” he suggested. “Leia is also from Naboo. I’ll be right back!”

He shot Leia another grin before heading off towards Master Seminaria’s office, where she oversaw all the initiates. 

Leia patted the empty space on the sofa. “You can sit here, Mara,” she offered. “Are you really from Naboo?” she asked curiously. 

Mara nodded as she sat down on the sofa. “I lived in Theed,” she confirmed. 

“That’s so cool! I don’t know where on Naboo I’m from,” she informed Mara. She inspected the clothes that Mara was wearing: a bright blue dress that went a bit past her knees and a darker blue vest on top of it, with stockings and black flats.

“Is that what girls wear on Naboo?” Leia asked. She’d seen pictures of everyday attire on older Naboo, as well as ceremonial clothing, when her clan learned about their cultures a couple of years ago, but she’d never really seen kid’s clothes before. It was much brighter than the beige robes she wore.

“Yes,” Mara said a bit defensively.

“It’s pretty,” Ira offered from where she was still sitting idly on the floor. 

Leia nodded vigorously. She hadn’t meant to sound like she was insulting Mara. “Yeah, it is,” she agreed.

“Jedi robes are so boring,” Ezra complained. 

Leia rolled her eyes. “They’re practical,” she countered. “They’re not supposed to be interesting!” She caught Mara’s eye and exchanged a grin. 

“So, what do you think of the Temple, so far?” Ezra asked, slouching back against the back of the sofa. 

“It’s very big,” Mara said, and they all chuckled. 

“Yeah, it is,” Leia agreed, “but you’ll get used to it,” she assured her. When she’d first moved out of the crèche, it had all seemed very overwhelming to her, but by now it just seemed normal. “The Room of a Thousand Fountains is my favorite room,” she said.

“I like the meditation gardens,” Ira said, moving from the floor to the couch. Ira was so good with plants.  
Ezra smirked. “I like the mess hall.” Mara smiled slightly, at that. 

Jedi Skywalker and Master Seminaria came around the corner. Leia sat up a bit straighter as they approached. Master Seminaria was nice, but was always reminding them to have good posture.

“Good posture now will help your lightsaber forms later,” she would say.

\--

After Master Seminaria ushered Mara off to change into Jedi robes and to meet her new clan, Jedi Skywalker hovered nearby.

“Thanks for keeping an eye on her,” he said a bit awkwardly. “She’s a bit shy, being in a new place.”

“You’re welcome,” Leia said, grinning at him, and her friends echoed the sentiment. They might only be seven, but it was still their job as initiates to help the younger ones out. “It’s cool that she’s from Naboo,” she commented. 

He made a noise of agreement. “Keep an eye on her for me, huh?” he asked the three of them. “I haven’t been teaching the youngest lightsaber classes in awhile, so I won’t be able to see her much.”

They all nodded solemnly, and he smiled gratefully before leaving.

Leia remembered when she’d been Mara’s age, and even younger, though she didn’t remember too far back. Jedi Skywalker was in her memories often, even before she’d started her initiate training. Maybe it was because she had been a baby, or because she was the first Jedi Youngling he’d brought to the Temple.

When she voiced that outloud, Ezra disagreed. “It’s totally because he’s going to take you on as a Padwan,” he said. “You’re totally his favorite!”

Leia crossed her arms. “You don’t know that! And Jedi aren’t supposed to have favorites,” she told them with a haughty sniff. 

Ira nodded sagely and leaned in. “I bet he won’t take another Padwan after what happened to his last one,” she said conspiratorially.  
“What do you mean?”

“One of the older initiates told me that she died,” Ira said, eyes wide.

Leia’s brow creased. “Really?”

Ezra shook his head. “No, she didn’t die,” he disagreed, exasperation in his voice. “I heard she got kicked out.”

“Well, whatever happened,” Leia said, slowly, “I’m sure it wasn’t Jedi Skywalker’s fault.” Leia had heard enough from her other instructors to know that Jedi Skywalker was different than most Jedi. But that didn’t matter; he was the best Jedi she knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of notes: If Yoda giving Mara her last name felt goofy, well I didn’t really love it, either. But it is what made the most sense for the arc that I have set up for her, even though I would have maybe enjoyed writing it differently lol. Also, it may seem a little weird that Padmé is so okay with offering up this child to the Jedi but a) there is no way she would ever adopt another child herself when her own daughter is living without a mother and b) Padmé’s beef isn’t really with the Jedi, it’s with the Council.  
> Up next- some actual plot! Wow!  
> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new darkness arises in the galaxy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, it's been... nine months?? Oops. Turns out that a pandemic is actually *not* super conducive to creativity. But I'm still slowly working on it, and while I can't guarantee regular updates, I will at least be writing. Thanks to all who've read so far and have been waiting for an update! 
> 
> Question of the week: how does Anakin land on the landing platform of Padmé’s apartment without *anyone* noticing? Well, I don’t know either, but he does. Also, I don’t think I’ve been specifying it up to this point, but last chapter the twins were seven and Mara was five, and this chapter is a year or so later.

“Are you sure that this is the best time to start dragging him around the galaxy?” Anakin asked Ahsoka skeptically, with a bit of an edge to it. She knew he was protective of Luke, and she respected that but-

“I am his teacher, Anakin,” she reminded him, trying to keep her tone gentle rather than defensive . They met about once a month, usually at some diner or bar in what she wouldn’t necessarily describe as a shady part of Coruscant, but shady-adjacent, perhaps, to catch up and talk about Luke’s training. “He’s ready to do some travelling without Padmé. And it’s not like it’ll be anything different than what he does with Padmé, anyways. Just more of a focus on training.” 

At the still unconvinced expression on his face, Ahsoka sighed, and softened. “I promise I’ll be extra careful on what assignments we take him on. We won’t get involved in this Snoke guy’s business.”

“I know,” Anakin sighed. “I still don’t like it.”

As much as she believed Luke was ready to do some travelling with her and Barriss, she understood Anakin’s worries. Five months ago marked the beginning of a new Senate rotation. Bail Organa’s time as Chancellor was over, as he had set stricter term limits for the office. Mon Mothma had been elected Chancellor, and her Vice Chancellor was now Mazun Dul, the Senator from Corellia. 

Dul’s election had been troubling to many, as he represented a new political party that had arisen with Palpatine’s downfall. They called themselves the First Order. Their leader, Corellia’s new prime minister, a man called Snoke, pushed for Republic expansion in the Outer Rim as well as less Republic intervention in already ‘civilized’ worlds.

The First Order was good at playing around the issue, but Ahsoka, as well as Padmé and many others, could tell that they held the same anti-alien sentiments that Palpatine had secretly harboured. 

Since the election of Snoke, Corellia had been swept up in violence, from both its criminal element and from his political detractors. Other worlds that also had a First Order presence had also started experiencing small amounts of violence, usually protests gone south, or riots. 

“Look, whatever Snoke is playing at, he won’t get very far,” Ahsoka tried to reassure him. “People are still wary of conflict so soon after the Clone Wars. They’ll get tired of the violence he’s stirring up. And I promise we’ll stay away from worlds with a First Order presence; we’re going to Kashyyk. Since Wookies have a long history of being exploited in this kind of conflict, their leaders are worried. Padmé just needs us to go and calm them down a bit. We’ll be talking to their leaders, then delivering supplies to an area affected by a storm; we’ll be fine.”

Ahsoka was the best person for this job, because she understood Shyriiwook, and she knew one of their leaders. 

Anakin gave her a look. “Isn’t that where you got kidnapped and hunted for sport?”

“That was Trandosha,” she corrected him. “It’s close by, but we’ll be coming from a totally different direction,” she assured him. “We won’t even be passing by it.”

“Fine,” Anakin assented begrudgingly, even though Ahsoka wasn’t really looking for his permission. 

“Make sure you keep your lightsabers out of sight,” Anakin reminded her, and she had to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

“I’m not stupid,” she told him, raising an eyebrow.

“I never said you were!” 

“You’ve got to trust that I know what I’m doing, Anakin.” She sighed. “The lightsaber laws are nothing new. Barriss and I would never do anything that would put Luke or Padmé at risk.”

Years ago, not long after Bail Organa had been elected Chancellor, there had been some debate about the Sith, and whether or not it was illegal to hold such beliefs. However, it had not been popular to criminalize an entire religion, so instead, certain measures had been put into place to appease the Jedi, such as making it illegal to carry or wield a lightsaber unless one was a member of the Order. 

Ahsoka continued to carry her lightsaber anyways, concealed away in a pocket or in a bag.

“How is Leia?” she asked, changing the subject.

Anakin did not look impressed by her attempt to move on, but did so anyway. “She’s doing well, I think. She’s near the top of her clan in lightsaber skills.”

“Have you ever considered teaching more than just lightsaber classes?” she asked.

“No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “My teachings aren’t very orthodox.” 

She laughed. “No, they’re not.” She smiled at him. “I learned a lot from you in just three years, and lightsaber duels was only a bit of it.”

“Me and the Jedi ways don’t get along very well,” he insisted.

Ahsoka shook her head, exasperated. “Anakin, you always complain about the things the Jedi teach, but you never bother to teach yourself.”

Anakin crossed his arms defensively. “I’m more of a duelist than a philosopher. I’m doing my best with them, Snips.”

Ahsoka softened. “I know you are. I’m sure Leia appreciates having you around, even if she doesn’t know why. But, I really think that you could be a good influence on them. Don’t you? Give them a new perspective?”

“I’m sure Obi-Wan would be thrilled that I’m taking an interest in philosophy,” he agreed after a moment of consideration. “I don’t know about everyone else.”

She laughed. 

\--

Ahsoka went straight to the apartment she shared with Barriss after lunch. Luke wouldn’t be done with school for another couple of hours, and the Senate was more Padmé and Dormé’s realm. She could use the time to pack for the trip to Kashyyyk. 

She found Barriss meditating in the living room of the apartment. Where Ahsoka tended to prefer wearing jumpsuits when she was working or, if she was working on official business of the Naboo Senatorial office, something similarly functional with a bit more professionalism, Barriss preferred a slightly more elegant look, just as she had as Jedi. Today, she was wearing a flowy black skirt and a nice but comfortable looking blue blouse. 

“How did it go?” she asked, eyes still closed in meditation.

“Well,” Ahsoka said as she pulled off her shoes and made her way over to the sofa behind her, “he tried to talk me out of it,” she said, leaning back against the sofa, “but he relented eventually.”

“His fear controls him,” Barriss said after a moment, opening her eyes and relaxing her posture slightly, turning to face Ahsoka. 

“It does not!” she disagreed, although sometimes she thought otherwise. “Luke’s his son, it’s natural for him to worry. And hey, he changed his mind, didn’t he? He’s always given me room to train Luke as I see fit.”

Barriss nodded her head, conceding the point. “Fair enough. He’s still not good at controlling his emotions,” she continued before Ahsoka could come to Anakin’s defense again. 

Ahsoka sighed. Since being released from prison, and even before, Barriss had believed that her fall had been due to her emotions- fear, anger, hate. So, now she strove to rid herself of those emotions, to feel peace. 

Ahsoka didn’t disagree that Barriss’s actions against the Jedi had been motivated by those emotions, but she thought that maybe there was more to it than that. 

Luke, for all that he was a child, did not seem to struggle with the same parts of his training than she, and most young Jedi, had. Peace came easily to him. Maybe it was his personality, but that’s not all it was. He was a very sweet, gentle child, but he was still impatient, reckless. Ahsoka privately thought that his peace came from the fact that he didn’t have to struggle with his emotions. He just- felt. 

Maybe that was making it too easy for him, and it would backfire later, but for now, Ahsoka was content to continue down their current path. Sometimes the easy path was easy because it was a shortcut, a dangerous way to get to one’s goal, but sometimes the easy path was easy simply because it means you’re doing it right.

So, she taught Luke to not try and separate himself from his emotions, but to be in harmony with them, and she was trying to teach herself the same thing. 

But Barriss disagreed. 

“Maybe trying to control our emotions at all is what is dangerous,” Ahsoka suggested hesitantly, leaning forward, bracing her elbows on her knees. 

Barriss shook her head, her intense blue eyes pointed at the ground. “If we don’t control our emotions, then they will control us.” She reached up to fiddle with the ends of her dark hair that she kept shoulder length, longer than when they’d been Padawans. She was beautiful, as she always had been. She looked up; her eyes held Ahsoka’s gaze. “Emotions like that are like an ocean. Fear, anger, and hatred-”

“And love,” Ahsoka added.

Barriss nodded, face still passive. “And love. They’ll toss you around, try to drown you, sweep you off the shore. You have to build a wall, to protect yourself from it.”

“The ocean doesn’t try to do anything. It just is,” Ahsoka countered. “If you learn to swim, or have a boat, then you’re safe.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you?”

Ahsoka huffed and leaned back against the sofa. She knew what Barriss was saying. That the ocean- emotions- would always be dangerous. Even if you could swim, or be safely in a boat, there were always dangers lurking beneath the surface. Not to mention the storms. 

\--

Leia sat in one of the Temple’s small meditation rooms alone. Normally she meditated with her clan, but right now, she just needed time alone. 

She took in a deep breath, holding it in for a moment, and exhaling slowly. She repeated the exercise a few times until she felt centered. 

She’d had a dream last night. It hadn’t been a normal dream, like her reoccurring dream about falling into one of the fountains in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, or even a nightmare. 

In the dream, she’d seen faces, people. A woman she could barely make out, with curly brown hair and a kind smile. A man with curly dark blond hair. A few others, another woman, more distant with darker hair, and a humanoid alien of some kind that was too blurry to recognize. And a child. 

She couldn’t tell if she was the child, or if she was watching the child. She saw them all against the background of a green meadow. It felt slow, idyllic, peaceful. 

Leia tried to focus, tried to see their faces clearly, but she couldn’t. 

The dream, it was beautiful, but sad. 

It was her family, she knew. She wondered if the dream was sad because it made her sad, or if the memory itself was sad. It felt like a beautiful memory. 

Leia did another round of breathing exercises and tried to push past the memory. She focused on the emotions the dream stirred up in her: sadness, confusion, wanting.  
She repeated the Jedi Code silently in her mind as she breathed, releasing her emotions into the Force. 

There is no emotion, there is peace. 

Her sadness was only disturbing the peace within her; she had to let it go.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

She pushed away her confusion, focusing on what she knew. The dream was of her family, but they were not important. She was a Jedi, the Jedi were her family. 

There is no passion, there is only serenity.

Love, Leia knew, was passion. Family, attachments, these things broke the serenity of a Jedi’s mind. She didn’t want them.

There is no chaos, there is only harmony.

Her mind must be calm, pushing away the emotions. She must be at one with all around her.

There is no death, there is only the Force. 

The Force contained all things, and when something died, it was absorbed into the Force. Her time with her family was dead. It had lived when the Force had needed it to, but that time had passed, and all was as the Force willed it.

With one last deep breath, Leia slowly got up from her meditation pose and found herself heading not towards where she knew her clan’s history lesson was supposed to start, but towards the part of the Temple where most of the Knight’s quarters were. 

She walked purposefully, but not too quickly, trying to pretend like she belonged here during a part of the day when most initiates were in classes, until she reached Jedi Skywalker’s door. She hesitated only briefly before knocking.

She felt him reach out to see who was at his door. Hi, she projected.

After a moment, he opened the door, a confused smile on his face. “Leia, it’s good to see you,” he said. “Shouldn’t you be in classes?”

She looked him in the eye. “I’m skipping,” she told him matter-of-factly.

He gave her a surprised grin. “Well, then, come on in,” he said, motioning her into his quarters. 

Leia had first been in Jedi Skywalker’s quarters about three years ago. She’d been sad, she remembered, because she’d worried that moving into her clan bunks meant that he wouldn’t be able to do her hair any more. He’d shown her where his room was, and had told her to stop by anytime she wanted her hair done. 

His quarters were small, plain grey walls just like in her clan’s bunk. There were blinds half closed over the windows, a sofa, and a tiny kitchenette in one corner, and a door to his bedroom in the other.

“So,” he said, closing the door after her and sitting cross-legged on the sofa, “Do you want to tell me why you’re skipping your classes?”

She sat down on the floor across from him, adopting the same posture and gave him a look. “I wanted to talk to you, obviously.” 

He chuckled. “Of course. And what was it you wanted to talk about?”

Leia glanced down at her hands in her lap. “Do you ever have sad dreams?” she asked him, not sure whether to directly ask him about her family. 

“Sad dreams?” he asked, considering. “Not nightmares?”

She shook her head. 

“Yes, I guess I have.” 

“What do they mean?” she asked. “Are they visions?”

He sighed. “Well, I imagine that that depends on the dream.” He smiled sadly. “Sometimes the Force gives us dreams that mean something, but sometimes, a dream is just a dream. Maybe it’s a reflection of our day, or a memory, or something you want.”

“My dream was about my family, I think,” she admitted. “I could barely make them out. But in the dream, I wanted to be with them. Is it bad?” she asked, quietly.

A shadow crossed over his face. “No, it’s not bad.”

“It’s not?” she asked hopefully.

“No.” His expression was as serious as she’d ever seen it. “Leia, you can’t control what you dream.”

“But what if my dreams are a reflection, like you said? A reflection of what I want? Master Yoda says that Jedi should not want attachments.”

He huffed. “We all have attachments, even Master Yoda.”

Leia looked at him skeptically. She found that hard to believe. “Really?”

“Yes, really!” he said, his serious expression breaking into a slight grin. “Attachment isn’t something we can simply not have. Jedi are taught to have compassion, after all, which is a form of unconditional love. That compassion is bound to lead us towards attachments.”

Leia crossed her arms. “I don’t think that’s what that means,” she disagreed. 

He laughed slightly. “Maybe not,” he muttered. “It doesn’t matter what it’s supposed to mean,” he said, more clearly. “You don’t have to agree with me, or Master Yoda, or Master Seminaria. As you get older, you’ll have to make up your own mind. There is more than one right way to be a Jedi, Leia.”

She nodded in understanding, feeling a bit better about her dream. She still wasn’t sure if she agreed completely, but he was right that she didn’t control her dreams. It didn’t make her a bad Jedi.

He stood up with a brief smile, offering a hand to help her up. “C’mon, I’ll walk you back to your class. I have my own class that is starting soon, actually.”

“A lightsaber class?” Leia asked.

“Not quite,” he said as he led them out of his quarters. “Philosophy, actually.”

“I didn’t know you taught Jedi theology,” she remarked. She was kind of surprised that they let him. Everyone knew that Jedi Skywalker wasn’t a typical Jedi.

He chuckled, seeming to sense her reaction. “It doesn’t really seem like my thing, does it?”

She shrugged, her cheeks heating up. 

“Well, you’re right; it isn’t. But I’ve been talked into it. This is only my second class; Obi-wan is letting me cover for him while he is off-planet.” 

“Master Kenobi is letting you?” she asked, disbelieving that Jedi Skywalker would want to teach that kind of class

He hesitated for a moment, before replying. “Yes. I was talked into it by my former padawan.” 

“She’s alive?” Leia blurted without thinking.

Jedi Skywalker glanced down at her and gave a wry chuckle. “Is that a rumor? No, she’s not dead. She just left. She’s still on Coruscant, even; she works for the Naboo senatorial office.”

“Oh,” Leia said. That must be why he knows so much about Naboo. She wanted to ask why his padawan had left, but wasn’t really sure how, so instead she just followed him silently. Ezra had told them that his padawan had been kicked out, but Jedi Skywalker had just said ‘left’. 

“You’re thinking very loudly,” he commented after about a minute of walking in silence. He stopped walking, turning to look at her. “You have questions,” he stated, matter of factly. Leia nodded, feeling shy all of the sudden, even though she’d known Jedi Skywalker practically all her life. 

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, looking down at her shoes. 

“You don’t have to be sorry,” he said kindly. “I don’t mind if you ask me your questions. In fact, I’d rather you do that than continue to feed the Temple rumor mill,” he said wryly. 

Leia looked back up at him, nodding. “Okay, so your padawan-”

“Ahsoka,” he interrupted.

“So, Ahsoka,” she corrected herself, “You said she left the Order. Did she leave on her own?”

He sighed, crossing his arms. “She chose to leave, if that’s what you mean. But she wasn’t given much of a choice, if you ask me.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

He glanced down at his chrono. “We’ve got to get moving,” he said. “Ahsoka’s decision-” he sighed. “It was complicated.” He gave her a considering look. “I’ll tell you about it when you’re older.”

Leia huffed. He said she could ask questions, but apparently that really only meant one question. 

\--

Padmé smiled as Anakin’s speeder landed on her apartment’s landing pad. She didn’t always wait out for him; sometimes he forgot to let her know he was on his way, and he wasn’t always able to come over at the same time, and sometimes she herself got so caught up in her work, and he’d come into her office in the apartment, gently cajoling her away from her work.

But today she waited for him outside, sighing happily as he swept her into his arms. She wound her arms around his neck, breathing in his scent as she could feel his chest expand and contract with a deep sigh of relief. 

He set her down, his flesh hand coming up to cup her cheek as he bent down to kiss her. She stood on her toes to meet him, one hand coming up to grasp his shoulder, the other winding into the curls at the nape of his neck. 

“I spoke to Leia today,” he told her with a small smile as they separated, and her hands came to rest on his shoulders, while his rested on her waist, thumbs stroking in place.

“You did?” Hearing her daughter’s name brought a smile to her face, even as a jolt of sorrow swept through her. 

He hummed in confirmation. “She dreams of us,” he said, in a voice thick with emotion. “She came to me, to ask if her dreams were bad, if they were against the Code.”

Padmé wondered what Leia saw in her dreams of them. Could she feel the sorrow that had run beneath the surface of that year on Naboo? 

“What did you tell her?” she asked.

“I told her that we can’t control our dreams any more than we can control who we love,” he said, his bright blue eyes meeting hers. 

She smiled sadly. “I’m glad she comes to you for advice. It means she trusts you.”

“She reminds me of you,” he said. “Her big brown eyes, her curiosity, her kindness,” his soft expression changed into a mischievous one as he continued, “her stubbornness.”

Padmé laughed. “Oh, my stubbornness? I think that’s something she got from you,” she insisted. 

“It’s definitely from you,” he disagreed, chuckling. “You should see the expression she makes when she disagrees with me. It’s a look I’m familiar with.”

She gave him a look, and he laughed. “There, that’s the one!” he exclaimed, laughing slightly as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. 

“How’s Luke?” he asked, changing the subject. 

“Well, I haven’t heard from Ahsoka yet, so I assume they’re still in hyperspace,” she told him. They’d left not long after Luke got home from school; Luke had been so excited to go on his first ‘solo’ mission that he’d basically dragged Ahsoka and Barriss out of the door. He’d even packed yesterday without her even having to tell him to.

Anakin looked surprised by this information. “Hyperspace?” he asked.

“To Kashyyyk, remember?” Padmé reminded him. “I thought Ahsoka talked to you about it yesterday.”

His forehead creased. “I guess I didn’t realize that she was planning on leaving so soon.”

“They’ll be fine, Anakin,” she reassured him. “It’s just a simple relief mission. Trust Ahsoka and Barriss to keep him safe.”

“I do trust Ahsoka,” he said slowly, “but are you sure you’re entirely comfortable with letting Barriss spend so much time around Luke?” 

“I’m sure,” she said simply. And she was. Barriss was troubled, she knew, much like someone else she knew, but she regretted what she’d done. And more than anything, she trusted Ahsoka’s judgement. She’d spent a lot of time with Barriss over the years, and if she thought it was safe, then Padmé would agree with her.

When Anakin still looked troubled, Padmé stepped back, towards the apartment, grabbing one of his hands to pull him after her. “Ani,” she said with a slightly exasperated smile, “I know you’re worried, but you’ll have time to worry tomorrow. Right now, we have the whole apartment to ourselves; let’s go inside.” 

He followed her inside, where it was just the two of them; the outside world and all of its troubles melted away.

\--

Luke was all but vibrating with excitement as the ramp lowered to reveal the world of Kashyyyk. He glanced up at either side of him, first to Barriss on his left, and then to Ahsoka on his right. Threepio followed behind them, ready to act as translator when Ahsoka couldn’t. She smiled at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. His first mission without his mom; it was a big deal. 

At the end of the ramp waited members of the King’s council, as well as the local Chieftain, and a couple of generals. 

They bowed to the Wookie at the head of the group, and he bowed in return, growling out what Luke assumed to be a greeting. Luke wasn’t as good at languages as Ahsoka and Barriss were. 

“Thank you for welcoming us on behalf of his Majesty. Queen Layarria and Senator Amidala of Naboo send their greetings,” Ahsoka said, before turning to Luke and Barriss. “This is the Senator’s son, Luke Naberrie, and Barriss Offee, my fellow representative from Senator Amidala’s office.”

There were more greetings all around, which Luke watched, half interested. He poked at Barriss’ mind, knowing she couldn’t speak Shyriiwook, and instead of a poke back, like he might get with Ahsoka, she just turned and glanced at him, eyebrow raised. He shot her a grin, and he did finally feel an echo of a laugh through the Force. He knew Barriss liked to act like she was so serious, but she was a pretty nice person. 

“Reach out with the Force, Luke,” she instructed, leaning down slightly to whisper to him. “Try and feel the emotions of those around you. Be aware of your surroundings.” She gave him a small smile. “Maybe then you won’t feel so left out.”

“Yes, Barriss,” Luke said, dutifully. He did as she said, reaching out with his feelings, and to his surprise, rather than just the calm emotions he expected, he felt a jolt of excitement from one of the Wookies in the back.ff

Luke’s eyes widened when said Wookie swept Ahsoka up in a big hug, roaring a particularly enthusiastic greeting. 

“Oh! Chewbacca!” she said with some surprise in her voice. “It’s good to see you, too, old friend.” When he set her down, they talked back and forth for a bit, and Luke found it a bit difficult to only follow half of a conversation, though he could feel that this Chewbacca was happy to see them. 

“They certainly seem very friendly,” Threepio remarked behind them. 

“Of course they are,” Barriss said with her characteristic calmness and aura of all-knowingness that Luke knew drove Ahsoka batty. “The Wookies have long been very supportive members of the Republic. They have always strove to maintain good relations with other planets, even if that desire hasn’t always been reciprocated.”

“Mom said that Wookies are one of the most noble and loyal species that exist in the Republic,” Luke added, proud to show that he was listening when they talked about politics. 

Barriss nodded. “That’s right. That’s why it’s so important to maintain good relations with them. We can’t just neglect them because they’ve always been there; we have to show them we value them.”

“Which is why we’re bringing aid.”

“Exactly.” At this Barriss shot him another little smile, to show that she was proud of him. Luke smiled back, because he knew it was hard for her to show that kind of thing. He’d heard Ahsoka scold her for it more than once. 

Eventually, Ahsoka turned back to them. 

“Barriss, Luke, this is Chewbacca. We go way back.” Luke smiled up at the tall Wookie. He was so tall; all the Wookies were. Even taller than Jedi Skywalker, who was pretty tall. 

“Chewie, this is Luke. He’s here to learn,” she explained vaguely. “And this is Barriss. We grew up together,” she said, giving Chewie a look. Luke knew this was her way of explaining that Barriss was also a former Jedi, without saying so outright. Being a former Jedi wasn’t bad, Luke knew, but there also weren’t a lot of them, so Barriss and Ahsoka tended not to mention it. Especially because Barriss had done bad things in the past as a Jedi. 

Chewie roared something, motioning them forward. Ahsoka turned back to them to translate. “He says that first we will meet with the King and his council, and then we will be transported to the nearby village that was hit in the recent storm.”

Luke and Barriss followed Ahsoka, Chewie, and the other Wookies through the winding path of stairs and bridges that connected the giant wroshyr trees. It was beautiful, Luke thought, as long as you didn’t look down. 

Barriss must have noticed him looking at the railing uncertainty because she grabbed his hand, shooting him a small smile. “Your mother will have my head if you fall out of one of these trees,” she told him quietly. Luke let her, even though he didn’t really think he needed his hand held now that he was eight. It was a long way down, and his mother would be extremely upset with Barriss and Ahsoka if he got hurt. 

“Are you scared of my mother?” he asked her with a grin. 

“Oh, absolutely,” she said with a solemn nod. “More than any Separatist or battle droid I’ve ever faced.” 

His grin widened, and he held tightly to Barriss’ hand for the rest of the journey to one of the highest platforms in the capital city, where the King met with his council. 

The King was even a bit taller and larger than the rest of the Wookies, dark, near black fur peppered with silver throughout. He sat in an innocuous looking chair at the head of the circular platform, and the three members of the council took their spot in chairs on either side of the King, with the other Wookies who’d accompanied them moving to stand next to those seated. That left just the four of them, Luke, Barriss, Ahsoka, and Threepio, standing facing the Wookies. Even though Luke knew that the Wookies were loyal members of the Republic, there was still something intimidating about the sight. 

Luke remembered what Barriss told him earlier, and he reached out with the Force again. This time, he felt stronger emotions. Fear, worry, permeated the council.

The King began speaking in the growls of Shyriiwook, with Threepio translating.

“His Majesty, King Rrayyywk of Kashyyyk, welcomes the ambassadors from Naboo. He thanks Naboo for their aid, and for allowing his majesty to share his concerns. He says that their representative in the Senate has had a difficult time being heard these days.” That didn’t surprise Luke. While he didn’t sit in on as many Senate sessions as he used to, now that he was in school, he still did occasionally, and not many beings had their voices heard. It was usually just a lot of yelling.

“Your Majesty,” Ahsoka began, “We are happy to carry your concerns back to Senator Amidala, but to be honest, the Senate is very much at a standstill. With Chancellor Mothma and Vice Chancellor Dul being from opposing parties, it is hard to get anything onto the floor these days.”

King Rrayyywk growled mournfully. “His Majesty understands,” Threepio dutifully translated. “It is Vice Chancellor Dul that he is worried about,” and at this, the other Wookies made noises of agreement. “Him, and the other members of the First Order. It is no secret that the First Order has begun implementing anti-alien policies on several planets. Several close enough to make the Wookies nervous. They already have enough problems from Trandosha, without having to worry about Hapes, Valgauth, and Onderon as well.”

Luke sensed surprise from Ahsoka. “Onderon? King Dendup may have been neutral before the Clone Wars, but they’ve-”

King Rrayywk interrupted with a curt growl. “His majesty says that a single victory does not heal all wounds,” translated Threepio. “Onderon may have joined the Republic, but that does not mean it is a planet of one mind. The First Order has a presence there. It may be small, but that may not matter.”

“To be honest, I think you have a right to be worried, Your Majesty,” Barriss said, speaking up. “The First Order is stirring unrest in people’s hearts. Preying on the vulnerable state of the galaxy. I, more than most, know how easy it is to be swayed when you are already conflicted.”

“His Majesty asks what can be done? Is Senator Amidala working to fight the First Order? Are the Jedi?”

Ahsoka shot a quick glance at Barriss that Luke couldn’t decipher. “At the moment, there is nothing to fight. They’re just a political party, but-”

“King Rrayywk reminds you that the Sith were just a religion.”

“That’s not the same,” Ahsoka said quickly, shaking her head. 

Luke shifted uncomfortably as some of the Wookies shook their heads and muttered. He didn’t know much about the First Order, but what he did know, he knew from his mother. It was strange to hear these Wookies, strong, proud, creatures, seem so afraid of anything. 

Ahsoka seemed like she was going to continue, when Barriss stepped in again. “Senator Amidala shares your concerns. She has always fought for the equality of all beings, starting with the Gungans on her home planet, and has always been a voice for equality in the Senate.”

King Rrayywk sighed and growled out a response. “His Majesty thanks the office of Senator Amidala for listening to his concerns, and hopes that Senator Amidala will ally with alien species against the First Order, if the time should come.”

Ahsoka and Barriss bowed their heads in acknowledgement, and Luke did as well. Then, the Chieftain of the city, howled something at them, stepping forward, and directing them back the way they came. “Chieftain Varu asks that you follow him. He will take you to your transport.”

\--

Anakin was just finishing a lightsaber class with Mara Jade’s clan Dalgo when Obi-Wan commed him and asked to meet. He knew Obi-Wan had just gotten back from Corellia- he had gone on a diplomatic mission to meet with Prime Minister Snoke- and had been debriefing with the council. He dismissed the younglings and hurried to Obi-Wan’s quarters, as Anakin sensed it was urgent.

Anakin found Obi-Wan seated in meditation on the floor of the very small living space in his quarters. “What’s so important that you comm me while I’m in class?” he demanded as he walked in. He wasn’t actually upset, more worried than anything. Obi-Wan wasn’t one to make a big deal out of nothing.

“Sit down,” he said curtly, turning to look at him, a frown etched onto his face. “I’ve just learned troubling news. It will be common knowledge soon enough.” 

He complied, sitting next to him and assuming a meditation pose. He knew that, while meditation wasn’t his favorite thing, it helped Obi-Wan immensely, and he might as well go along with it.

“I’ve learned that Prime Minister Snoke has the Force. That he uses the dark side.”

Anakin jolted. “What? Another Sith? How can this be?”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “He claims not to be a Sith. And in the loosest sense, that seems to be true. It seems that this Snoke was an acolyte, of sorts, of Sidious, back when Sidious was just a Sith apprentice himself. Snoke told me that while Sidious taught him how to use the dark side, he never taught him the ways of the Sith.”

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan incredulously. “He told you this?”

“Oh, yes,” Obi-Wan sighed. “He was quite eager to tell me all about himself. Gleeful, even. He knows that we can’t touch him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he hasn’t done anything illegal!” Obi-Wan exclaimed in frustration. “As far as we can tell, he had no association with the Separatists. He was a private citizen before running for office. His ship building corporation builds private vessels, not warcraft, so he never had contracts with either side. He’s never done anything illegal, hasn’t been implicated in any crimes, doesn’t carry a lightsaber, and ended his association with Sidious before his illegal activity began. He simply hasn’t violated Republic law.” He shook his head, glancing down at the floor. 

Anakin heard the defeat in Obi-Wan’s voice, and felt his own heart begin to race, fear creeping into his veins. “That’s not possible. I restored balance to the Force. It’s-it’s only been eight years.” He shook his head, unsure of what to say. He didn’t know how to put into words the combination of fear and frustration that flooded him. 

Obi-Wan looked up at that, and put a hand on Anakin’s shoulder. “You did restore balance. You destroyed the Sith. One man with a few years of bare bones instruction into the dark side is not the same thing.”

Anakin shook his head. “I didn’t want my children to have to worry about this like I did. A mysterious dark sider pulling strings in the galaxy.” 

He thought of what Qui-Gon’s ghost had told him all those years ago, on Naboo. He’d never told Obi-Wan about that. He’d never told anyone about that. According to Qui-Gon, he hadn’t restored balance. Not yet. He’d said there was more to do. On Mortis, it had all been very literal, controlling the Brother and the Sister at once, holding them in balance. But in the real world, he didn’t know. 

“Maybe there’s more to bringing balance to the Force than just destroying the Sith,” Anakin mused aloud. 

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. “More? And what might that ‘more’ be?”

Anakin shot him a grin. “I don’t know, Master. I suppose we’ll have to figure that out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes on Snoke and the First Order here: I am straight up ignoring canon for this tbh. I haven’t read the EU books that explain the rise of the First Order in canon, and honestly it doesn’t matter, because the First Order and Snoke in this story are basically different things. In this story, I am totally throwing out what we learn about Snoke in TRoS. For this story, Snoke is a normal human man marred by the darkside, who was one of Palpy’s contingency plans long before Anakin came along. He was sort of what Ventress was to Dooku.  
>  In my mind, without reading any of the EU books, the canon First Order was able to rise to power in the power vacuum following the fall of the Empire, exploiting the people who agreed with Palpatine and benefited from that system. Obviously, in this fic that didn’t happen, but Snoke still wants power, and there is still a much smaller power vacuum amongst Palp’s followers who still want to pursue his goals. So, they just have to do it in a different way.   
> Yes, some of the politics in this fic is going to mirror a lot of what is going on in the world today, because Star Wars is basically about the rise, fall, and aftermath of facism, so since I am going to be dealing with the rise of a facist political element, which is what we are seeing in many parts of the world today, there will be real world parallels.  
> Also, I’m having to make a lot of sh*t up. Like the name of a lot of random officials, the name of all the wookies except Chewie, the name of random senators, and the name of Naboo’s Queen during this time, etc. In canon, this would be around the time of Queen Kylantha, but she was an Imperial appointment, so it’s safe to say that it wouldn’t be here in this version of events. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! I know this chapter was a lot of standing around and talking (my favorite thing to write tbh) but there will be some like, actual stuff happening next chapter. I feel like I say that every chapter. Oh well.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo, like I said, LIGHTNING SPEED. I kind of rushed how much Anakin’s mindset changed in these months, but I might explore that later in one-shots, or if you want to discuss it, leave a comment!! I have a lot of thoughts about it, but at the same time, that’s not what this story is about; it’s about Anakin and Padmé raising Luke and Leia. I just had to get past this prologue lol. BUT, I will say that I am FAR from done dealing with Anakin’s issues. I kinda hand-waved a lot of it away for the purposes of getting through the events of RotS, but I will definitely be circling back. 
> 
> Also, feel free to say "hi" at my tumblr here


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